More illegal charter crackdown

And he didn’t have a drug policy? What do you need other than no drugs? Maybe no drugs before 6pm? Lol

Its a shame that the USCG abbreviated the Sun Sentinel's article from the on line paper Fri. 07-26 as YF's Norseman had a few classic quotes included in that article.

Only a few of my quotes were in

http://enewspaper.sun-sentinel.com/...spx?edid=cfecadad-415e-4848-8757-9753bfc786ee

Hmm, I did not read Friday’s paper, remember any quotes?
I spoke to the Journey about 20 minutes over the phone early in the week, he got my number from the National Association of Charter Boat Operators, guess they have a public index of members.
Nice guy, invited him for an Odin ride, a bit of free advertising don’t hurt nothing.
www.odincharters.com

From Fri. 07-26 -19 Sun Sentinel.
Capt.. Dag Hanssen who operates the Odin charter service on the New River in Ft. Lauderdale, says illegal charters take away from legitimate operations. "All these other people, they take my potential customers and do nothing on their boat" he said.

Hmm, that would be the short version: I explained the differences between a legal charter boat and a recreational boat: The Type 1 PFDs with Automatic strobe lights, the name on the bow, the documents onboard showing drug program with random testing, the alcohol tester, the various USCG Accident Reporting Forms, checklists for Fire, rough weather, man over board, etc, etc.
The above of course for an un-inspected vessel. (UPV)

Just curious, what kind of boat is that? Looking at the bow near the waterline, it has the same lines/strakes as my Hatteras. Funky house/bridge though

70' Johnson MY

Yes it is, and now listed for sale with this description:

Yup, I ran a Johnson 70 as well, private boat, enclosed FB with isinglass and no vipers.
It salted up, reduced forward visibility, no option to unzip isinglass.
Owner mod.
Other than that, nice boat 2 X MAN 1,350 HP, 29 knots cruise/top speed.

I wonder what it means when it says inappropriate merchant mariner credentials. Hard to believe that a 97' doesn't have one life ring. Usually there are several in hangers on a yacht that size.

§ 15.605 Credentialed operators for uninspected passenger vessels.
Each uninspected passenger vessel (UPV) must be under the direction and control of an individual credentialed by the Coast Guard, as follows:

(a) Every UPV of 100 GRT or more, as defined by 46 U.S.C. 2101(42)(A), must be under the command of an individual holding a license or MMC endorsed as master. When navigated, it must be under the direction and control of a credentialed master, pilot, or mate.

(b) Every self-propelled UPV as defined by 46 U.S.C. 2101(42)(B) must be under the direction and control of an individual holding a license or MMC endorsed as or equivalent to an operator of an uninspected passenger vessel (OUPV).

(c) Personnel serving on UPVs engaged on international voyages must meet the requirements of subpart K of this part.

Subpart K is STCW requirement

So, it's most likely just no license considering where it was unless it was returning from the Bahamas or something.

Just read an article on just that in Southern Boating/July 2019 And, they're going to want their cut. Good news is they are working on "an app for that" so the ol' "in person and cash only" may be a thing of the past.

The Southern Boating article also said the charter boats are supposed to pay a percentage (I think it was 4%) of each charter fee. Between the increase in customs fees and the annually increasing VAT (that nobody seems to know where it goes), the Bahamas is going to reach a tipping point where a lot of tourists are simply going to go elsewhere. I have not seen a single example, since they started collecting VAT of any infrastructure that has been upgraded at all in the Bahamas except they paved the streets on Green Turtle and stuck a new pole in to replace the channel marker that was broken off at NW channel for a decade.

For your average family that flies into Nassau to go to Atlantis (or elsewhere in the Bahamas) where everything is super over-priced to begin with, adding 15% VAT on top of everything is almost unbearable.

I love the Exumas and have been going there and doing many many trips there since 2003. But after Sampson Cay went private (which was a great marina and island for the personality of most of the owners I work for), things started to go downhill. Staniel stepped up and put a nice restaurant there, but the marina still has way too busy of a feel with boats constantly pulling in and out and tons of foot traffic on the dock. The biggest issue and detriment are all of the 40'+ center consoles from Nassau pulling up with 50+ cruise ship tourists. You go to feed the pigs and 3 center consoles pull up and all of a sudden you have 150 people in a spot that was once peaceful. The yacht tenders pulling up, even if there were 3 others, everyone respected everyone and it was peaceful. Same goes for the sharks at Compass. I still love the exumas, but it's really losing it's feel of being paradise with all of the boats out of Nassau running around at 40 knots and the 100's of people at a time. I did the Abacos last year for the first time in many years and it actually was quite nice for a change. Beautiful beaches and reefs, pigs......just doesn't quite have the exumas water color, and things like thunderball or the sharks at compass. However, you do have a choice of many more marina's on different islands, albeit most are pretty dated.