I remember when the Coast Guard was going around and stopping yachts
in New York Harbor. They would board and ask the guests if they had
brought any lunch or beer. The guest would say, "Of course we brought
something. We are polite and civil people and would never accept an
invitation with out bringing something."

The guys (this was before there were many gals) would then say, "Ah
ha! Compensation. Owner busted, trip over, return to the dock
immediately." I think it took some congressmen to get this
foolishness stopped.

I also saw the Coast Guard prevent a ship sailing to Bermuda because
they claimed there was no way to prevent the guests from giving money
to the owner in the future or proving that they hadn't already. Since
there was the potential for compensation, it was passenger carrying
without a license.

Obviously, there was something else going on in these cases. If the
Coast Guard wants to shut you down for some reason, a passenger is
anyone they say is a passenger until you spend thousands of dollars
and years in court proving otherwise. The only way to clearly prove
otherwise to pay them as crew and have all the records in order and
ready to produce.

The best thing to do is go into the MSO and discuss exactly what you
want to do. Same thing with your insurance company.

The FAA for some reason is much more reasonable about these things
than the Coast Guard.

--

Roger Long



"Tamaroak" wrote in message
...
Let's say a licensed master decides to offer to donate a boat ride
to a charitable organization's service auction. This group gets the
money when someone pays for the ride, the buyer gets the boat ride,
the captain gets nothing but a warm fuzzy feeling for contributing
to the charity. This is clearly not a part of any business, and the
captain is not in this business anyway.

Has the captain received compensation for this according to USCG
regulations? Does this mean s/he needs chartering insurance, has to
be documented, etc. to do this annually?

Capt. Jeff