On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 08:47:46 -0600, Tamaroak
wrote:

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?

In this case, you are acting as an agent for the charity and thus are
held to the same standard as you would for a paying client. Net
result is that while you are not receiving direct compensation, you
are acting as a professional with all the attendant problem and
possibilities of same.

If something happened, you would still be responsible in your capacity
as a licensed Captain.

It's as simple as that.

Later,

Tom