Bavaria 36 max passenger

[Kala]

Yesterday I was talking with an inspector about the maximum number of passengers that my boat is authorized to have.. That was interesting because he told me that if the boat has up to 8 people for Category A (as the builders plate states) he was nearly sure that it would easily reach up to 10 people for C... Builders plate does not mention nothing else than A... So I wrote to Bavaria and they just said that the boat is designed for A.. but did not answer my question about how many people would be acceptable for C...

Does anybody have a clue about this?..

Thanks again

[Symphony]

You are right - the boat is only rated to Cat A for 8 persons. There is no point in rating for Cat C as the boat is not intended for that sort of use. Unless you are in one of those repressive states that licences boats for use according to its RCD category there are no formal restrictions on how many people you have on board unless you are using it commercially when you will have to abide by the rules of the commercial licence. The RCD was never intended to be used as a means for restricting use - only as a way of informing the public of the type of use for which the boat was designed and built.

Just to give you an idea how nonsensical it is to use the RCD as a basis for licencing. The rating for 8 persons assumes each person has a full load of equipment so the level is determined by the total payload for a yacht in cruising trim - even though nobody in their right mind would want to go ocean sailing with 8 people and all their gear in a 38' yacht! Equally if the boat was just going for a day sail the design total payload would allow probably 12 people - if you could find room for them!

[Kala]

That's it.. I am using this bav36 as a day charter boat in Mallorca, Spain. .. I don´t want to put 12 people in it, but it would be a great difference being able to go out for a day excursion with 9 or 10 people or just  7 plus skipper... But, ah. This is Spain and if I don't have a builder statement saying that the boat can carry up to 10 people in Cat C, or something like that... I think there's nothing to do... Thanks for your reply!

[Symphony]

If it is any consolation you would not be allowed to have that many people on board even for day sails in the UK, even though our commercial coding rules do not take into account the RCD ratings for number of passengers.

In another life I once owned a 37 as a charter boat in Greece and that was indeed coded for 8 passengers and sometimes did have 8, but usually 4 adults and 4 (small) children.

[dmfranch]

If you are complaining about spanish regulation you should mouve to another more venevolent country. Belgium for exemple, has more relaxed regulations and at the same time you can change Mallorca weather for north Europe seas.

[Kala]

Lol, well. I prefer not to swap my mediterranean for the north europe seas... On the other hand Belgian law for commercial vessels is as hard as the Spanish.. I had my boat under belgian flag until I decide to move it to my country flag as in the end, if you are sailing in Spain you have to be in accordance with our laws.. It's a pitty how complex could be to run a charter boat, but I think not only in Spain...