Foreign built boats for charter????

[rjack321]

Cruise to nowhere vessel regulations were written for gambling ships. Turns out, dive charter vessels can use the regulations to their advantage too. Especially in Florida.

Are the gambling ships US registered/flagged? For some reason I thought they were Bahamian.

 

[bell47]

O.K. so could I use a 30 foot Canadian built "Novi" boat as a six pack charter boat to take people and suppies back and forth to local islands with out getting a waiver? Seems like it would be O.K. to use it for dives, dinner cruises, tours, ect.. I think I found a good deal on a Novi, so that's why all the questions, and I DON'T want to operate in the grey. Thanks guys.

 

[Avonthediver]

That is called the Jones act and it restricts foreign built vessels from being used in the US as passenger vessels where a fee is being charged.

Does this also apply to home built boat's built for passage or just out of country built boat's?

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

What is known as the Passenger Vessel Act (PSA) of 1886 (46 U.S.C. 289) states that “no foreign vessel shall transport passengers between ports or places in the United States, under penalty of $200 for each passenger so transported or landed.”

Over time, a number of exceptions have been made to the Jones Act, for example Canadian vessels may transport passengers between Rochester and Alexandria Bay, New York and between southern Alaska and U.S. ports until an American carrier enters the markets. Similarly, foreign vessels may transport passengers between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland as long as a U.S. carrier does not provide such service.

Foreign-flagged cruise ships may carry passengers from a U.S. port as long as they return them to the same port (a "cruise to nowhere"). Foreign vessels may also call at intermediate U.S. ports as long as no passenger permanently leaves the vessel at those ports and the vessel makes at least one call at a foreign port.

While the PSA prevents foreign cruise ships from carrying passengers directly from Alaska and the West Coast to Hawaii and from competing for Hawaiian inter-island cruise traffic, a considerable number of foreign cruise ships do visit Hawaii in any given year. American passengers on foreign cruise ships to Hawaii must board in another country—typically, Vancouver, Canada or Ensenada, Mexico. These ships cannot pick up a passenger in one U.S. port and drop off the passenger in another U.S. port. However, after arriving from Canada or Mexico, they may tour the islands and drop off passengers in Hawaii. They may then pick up new passengers, tour the islands, and return to Canada or Mexico.

In October 1997, federal legislation was passed that permits a person to operate a foreign-built cruise ship in the U.S. coastwise trade provided that the person had entered a binding contract for the delivery of two U.S.-built cruise ships. The first ship must be delivered no later than January 1, 2005, and the second ship must be delivered no later than January 1, 2008. Moreover, in Hawaii, only the existing cruise ship operator may operate a foreign-built ship among the islands unless a new U.S.-built cruise ship is placed into regular service outside of Hawaii. This legislation makes it possible to temporarily employ a foreign-built vessel among the Hawaiian Islands despite the Passenger Services Act while new U.S.-built cruise ships are constructed.

OK, my US cruise ship employee experience is not quite exactly this. I served time with NCL and NCL America in more than the Hawaiian Islands; here are a few itineraries/details/grapevine:

Norwegian Star is a foreign built and flagged cruise ship that I worked on doing many weeks of a Hawaiian Island itinerary. It is a cruise to nowhere, from Honolulu to Honolulu, but to be Jones Act legal it had to visit a foreign port each cruise; We spent 2-ish days (1600 miles) on a round trip to Fanning Island (Kiribati) to drop anchor and go ashore for lunch.

Slower ships take 3-ish days; so does a broken NCL Star. The Star did not drop anchor the last trip before taking passengers from Hawaii to San Francisco, where it dry docked to receive the casino from the dry docked Sky/Pride of Aloha. One main drive failed (azipod?) before reaching Fanning Island and the ship turned around immediately; NCL was fined a per passenger amount for that trip due to no foreign port visit.

Foreign cruise ships do similar runs from California to Mexico or Canada ports, and back to California.

I was on a 17 day repositioning cruise aboard the "foreign" Norwegian Sky, from Puerto Rico to Vancouver, where passengers picked up in PR and foreign ports along the way (Aruba, Curacao, Costa Rico, Mexico) were dropped off in either California or Canada.

With regards to the NCL America ship(s). There is only one in Hawaii now.

This story starts with American Classic Voyages and their two ancient domestic built cruise ships; Constitution and Independence. Just before 9/11 ACV jumped into the 21st century feet first; unfortunately the shoes might as well have been cement.

The Maritime Administration approved a 1.5 Billion USD guaranteed loan for the construction of 2 modern American built cruise ships. A Mississippi ship yard got crackin' and by 9/11 there was a "floating hull" having the interior started and "parts" for the second ship in the adjoining warehouse.

9/11 happened; nobody flew to Hawaii for months; American Classic Voyages went under; The US was left holding a $1.5 B note.

I heard the US shopped the "ships" around to all the major cruise lines trying to not lose their A$$. NCL made the best offer. After negotiations were completed, NCL agreed to assume all the debt. The US agreed to allow the ships/parts to be moved to Germany for completion (Mississippi ship yard also went under) and still be flagged USA. The US also agreed to allow one of NCL's existing foreign ships to be reflagged USA (the oddball Sky).

Then the projected first ship, the Pride of America, was swamped by a wind storm in the Bremerhaven ship yard, probably resulting in that ship yard going under. NCL went before Congress to get Emergency permission to reflag the SKY immediately and make the Pride of Aloha the first US flagged cruise ship since the '50's, and then about a year later the Pride of America became the first "partially built" in the US, US flagged cruise ship in over 50 years.

Eventually, the Pride of America and Pride of Hawaii joined the Pride of Aloha in Hawaii. The Pride of Aloha has since been renamed / reflagged the Norwegian Sky (again). The Pride of Hawaii is now renamed / reflagged the Norwegian Jade. The Pride of America is the only USA flagged cruise ship operating in Hawaii.

 

[Bluesphere]

Help,

So, I need a little advice. My name is Alex. I'm an American and I sail internationally full time. I live aboard my USCG documented 1973, 40' Cheoy Lee midshipman Ketch (Splendid) which was built in Hong Kong.

I want to go back to the states and possibly charter. What exactly, and how much will it cost me to have the ability to charter my boat?

Any advice would be gr8

Alex Dorsey
Project BlueSphere - A solo circumnavigation & video documentation of the globe

 

[Wookie]

Help,

So, I need a little advice. My name is Alex. I'm an American and I sail internationally full time. I live aboard my USCG documented 1973, 40' Cheoy Lee midshipman Ketch (Splendid) which was built in Hong Kong.

I want to go back to the states and possibly charter. What exactly, and how much will it cost me to have the ability to charter my boat?

Any advice would be gr8

Alex Dorsey
Project BlueSphere - A solo circumnavigation & video documentation of the globe

Bareboat charters were specifically designed for you in mind. You are documented, so you would operate as a uninspected passenger vessel. The regulations are minimal and available on the internet. You will need to hire or get your own captain's license as an operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels, and carry a minimal amount of lifesaving equipment.

 

[MarinersSchool]

Alex,
All of our courses are Coast Guard approved and offered in an online format.
So, the idea is anytime anywhere learning. You go at your own pace and set
the times you wish to learn.

The OUPV/Six-pack course is currently being offered for $596.25 this
represents a $200.00 savings and the Master License course is being offered
at $840.00 representing a 25% discount. These course costs include all
course materials and supplies including your text books and plotting tools.

For either license you are required to have a minimum of 360 days experience
on the water with 90 of those days being done in the last three years. Four
hours on the water counts as one day and in 24 hours you can claim just one
day. For a near Coastal OUPV/Six-pack license the 90 days would need to be
done outside the boundary lines. For a near Coastal Master License you would
need 720 days experience with 360 of those days being done outside the
boundary line. In the event that you do not currently have the required time
our Coast Guard approval allows you one year to complete our course and an
additional year to meet the time requirements. So it is not unusual that a
client begin taking the course prior to having the necessary time on the
water. This is basically an honor system where you make a best guess at the
time you spent on the water. This information is recorded on a Sea Service
form which we provide when you enroll for one of our courses.

Testing is a two step process where you complete an online exam for each
module. Once you have passed the module exams you are now qualified to take
a proctored exam in one of our approved locations. Once you pass this
proctored exam you are mailed a certificate of completion which the Coast
Guard will accept in lieu of taking their exam. You would be required to
test in one of our approved testing centers or a Coast Guard Regional Exam
Center.

You can get complete details about the differences between the licenses and
the specific requirements. Please go to Captain's License Online | Mariners School | MarinersLearningSystem.com here you can
review each license and also view a live demo which will give you access to
an actual online classroom course. Once here you can listen to a lecture,
read the course materials, watch a training video and take a quiz. This demo
was built to give you the ability of determining if online learning is for
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the course cost. Once you complete the course you have an additional year to
meet the additional requirements.

Once you review our website you can call our office toll free at
1-866-SEA-CAPT or 609 987-0555 to speak directly with one of our staff
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I hope to be able to add your name to a long list of Captain's who have used
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[fisheater]

Is there an issue with the Jones Act? It generally mandates an American built hull for domestic passenger service.


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[MarinersSchool]

Fisheater, see some of the previous posts as we addressed the Jones Act.

 

[fisheater]

Weird! Those posts weren't there when I posted (using Tapatalk). I swear!

Sorry.


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