If you still plan on donating a boat trip, one thing to keep in mind is to
clearly state what this boat trip will consist of, how many passengers, etc.
I've made such a donation twice to a charity in a fairly small community.
The first time couldn't have gone better, made some new friends, but the
second got a little strange. I realised that some bidders can get the
notion, at least later, that the more they bid for something loosly
defined, the more they should get. There's no question when it is a TV or
bicycle being bid on.

"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