whats a sixpack???

[scubabrn]

just looked into a shop in the keys, said they have a "6 pack". I understand that it holds 6 peps, lady on the phone said divers do back roll intries, but the boat had a dive ladder to get out. When I heard "6pack" and back roll intry, I immediately thought inflateable raft type boat. Could someone please give me a description of this thing.

 

[Cave Diver]

Generally a 6 pack is just a smaller dive boat the holds 6 divers.

In otherwords it's not a big cattle boat with 20-30 divers at a time.

It's usually small and fast, but not normally inflatable IME.

 

[mike_s]

You most likely have to backroll because they don't have a swim platform to do the "giant stride" off of. This is typical on smaller boats.


Here's some stuff I cut-n-pasted from another thread on 6 packs.

Actually a 6-pack boat is any boat that is run under the license of a US Coast Guard commonly called a "6 pack license". So the boats are called "6-pack charters". The difference in this a a bigger charter boat is that a 6 pack license is limited to 6 passengers and the boat is not inspected annually by the USCG. Because of this, it's typically a smaller boat and either either cheaper to charter or since there are max 6 of you, you have more control/say over your sites your visiting.

Officially the real Coast Guard name for the Six-pack is OUPV which stands for "Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessel". It is called the 6-pack because you can only take 6 paying passengers or less with this license. It's good for operating vessels up to 100 tons & 65 ft, but the 6 passenger limit still applies.

For lots of charter boats, this is very common. Expecially with fishing, yatch, and sailing charters.

 

[HappyFunBoater]

A 6-pack is actually defined as a type of captain's license, not a type of boat, that permits a maximum of 6 passengers. Therefore most dive boats that have a 6-pack captain are smaller boats since the extra space can't be used by paying customers. But there's nothing to preclude a big boat from being piloted by a 6-pack captain and having at most 6 passengers. And all the 6-packs I've been out on are still fairly large (~25 ft) and have a normal exit and entry procedure, i.e., no backroll entry.

 

[Tsalagi]

It's a small package that holds 6 beverages...and...oh well, it's 5 oclock on a Friday and that's about what I'm thinking.

Anyway the above is about as accurate as it comes. When doing fishing charters I prefer the six-packs instead of the cattle boats. I've never dove off of one, but I would imagine the benefits would be the same -- smaller groups, more personal service.

It's really just a different classification of license for the boat/captain as described above.

 

[HappyFunBoater]

...Actually a 6-pack boat is any boat that is run under the license of a US Coast Guard commonly called a "6 pack license"...[/I]

Dang. I guess I should read all the posts before replying. :blinking: Sorry.

 

[DeputyDan]

http://www.hmsminnow.com/hmsminnow/

I use this six pack in the keys...

 

[mike_s]

But there's nothing to preclude a big boat from being piloted by a 6-pack captain and having at most 6 passengers.

Actually there are things to preclude a big boat from being run as a 'six pack'.


The OUPV (Six Pack) Coast Guard license is limited for operating vessels up to 100 tons & 65 ft. So you couldn't operate some larger boat such as a 85 footer as a 6-pack. The boat would have to be USCG inspected annually and the captain would have to have an at least 100 ton masters certificate. (if it was to be used for charter purposes).

 

[HappyFunBoater]

Ah, right. Good point.

 

[Guy Carrier]

Here's a picture of a six pack we love to use when we're in Cozumel.

You do a back roll off the side and use a ladder to climb back aboard from the side. It gets you to the dive sites much faster than a big slow cattle boat and you only have five other divers in the water with you at the same time. We switched to this type of dive op after spending a week diving with a cattle boat operation our first time in Cozumel and we'd never go back.

Guy