Experienced Sailors who want to Charter: May now need ASA #104!

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Maybe an idea for an ASA specialty class!

Ok... so we have 101-103-104-105-106-107-108-110-113-114... hmm

Oh! endorsements...

Maybe we can "slip it in" after the 118 docking endorsement

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by HappyMdRSailor

Ok... so we have 101-103-104-105-106-107-108-110-113-114... hmm

Oh! endorsements...

Maybe we can "slip it in" after the 118 docking endorsement

Yes, an endorsement class would be a good "fit"...just chose your students carefully. ;-)

[SailBeat]

The ICC is a EU directive however not mandatory. It's only been of late that individual countries are requiring it for recreational chartering.

At the moment only Croatia requires it legally however both Greece and Turkey are considering making it mandatory from next year. Note "Considering". If your looking to charter in the Med I would recommend looking at getting it.

I don't know about the ASA but for the RYA all you need to do is show you are capable of handling a yacht. So if you already have a day skipper and I'm assuming the asa 104 you can just send it in and they will send you out the ICC qualification. If you have no qualification you will need to attend a two day course to get qualified.

You DONT need to take an expensive course from a sailing school to get this piece of paper however I'm sure many sailing schools will jump on this bandwagon and milk it.

Here the RYA link The ICC Assessment | The ICC and Proof of Competence Abroad | Boating Abroad | Information & Advice | RYA
ASA link International Sailing Proficiency Certification for Chartering from ASA

I hope this helps, please feel free to send me a private message if you have any questions.

[jtsailjt]

The issue of non-sailors renting charter boats and becoming hazards to themselves and other sailors has needed to be addressed for quite awhile, but I hope those instituting the restrictions recognize other equivalent or higher licenses rather than recognizing just the ASA qualification, thus forcing able and experienced mariners to jump through unnecessary hoops just to enjoy a weeks charter. it seems pretty silly and a waste of money and time for someone who has an any tonnage, any ocean USCG ticket and has owned his own sailboat or motorboat for as long as he can remember be forced to pass an additional test or take an additional course. I understand wanting to make sure charterers are basically qualified but the criteria needs to be inclusive rather than limited to just ASA quals.


A little thread drift, but my funniest charter story was in the BVI's in the late afternoon. We had just anchored our charter cat at the edge of the Marina Cay mooring field and had gathered in the cockpit to enjoy Painkiller number one for the day when a couple approached the nearest vacant mooring ball in a 35' monohull charter boat. Both late 50's, very white skinned, and very well qualified to occupy the rail of any racing boat ("portly"), with he at the helm and she on the foredeck (of course). All went well up to her grabbing the pennant and hauling it aboard but having difficulty getting it onto a cleat. Of course it would have helped if he had taken the transmission out of gear. But she was clearly a determined and strong woman so slid to the deck and braced her feet on the toerail and held on for dear life as the boat circled the mooring ball, narrowly missing the boat moored ahead of them. They had our attention! Finally she had to let go and they repositioned for a second pass. We could see from their body language that he at the helm wasn't happy about her obvious negligence in not managing to get the pennant promptly on a cleat and we could hear that he was not aware of how well sound carries over water, especially when you are trying to talk over your engine noise to someone on your foredeck. So, for the second time they approached the mooring ball and by now even more eyes were turned their way. This time, though his approach was pretty fast, he did take it out of gear and she did manage to get the pennant on a cleat with him leaving the helm and rushing forward to "help" her as their momentum once again carried them to within a few feet of the boat moored just ahead. Once they had the pennant securely on the cleat this very large, very white couple surprised us by "high fiving" on the foredeck, then he promptly headed back to shut off the engine and do something to the dinghy. But as he reached towards the dinghy he leaned outward too far and fell in just as she finished securing the pickup buoy and turned around. She obviously was very surprised by the sudden disappearance of her captain who just a few seconds earlier had been celebrating their successful snag of a mooring with her so just stood there looking aft with a confused look on her face. Where could he have gone?! From abeam them we could see that he was awkwardly trying to climb back onto the swim platform with the mooring boy approaching in his outboard boat to collect the fee and offering a hand to him to get back aboard. So, the comedy show was over for that day but I couldn't help wonder if either one of them ANY experience aboard a boat, and since they obviously were so proud of managing to pick up a mooring ball in only two attempts in benign conditions, how did they feel about a successful tack or how would they approach setting their anchor or any number of other routine sailing events? What if conditions were anything other than very benign?

[OldFrog75]

Probably has something to do with insurance. I can understand the frustration of someone with the OP's experience being denied access when it's possible for a person without any experience to take a week long 101/103/104 class and meet the certification requirements.

That said, having an international standard for chartering can't be all bad. At least it's "only" the 104. Can you imagine the impact if they bumped it to include the 105/106 and possibly the 107/108 as well?