Passenger tenders and SOLAS Ch V

[CharlieDelta]

So I might be completely missing something here, but a cruise ship tender is basically a passenger ship by SOLAS definitions. So why don't tenders carry GPS/official charts/ARPA etc per regulation 19?

I know the answer will be blindingly obvious but I'm a bit stuck!

[CharlieDelta]

Reg 1 says the administration may decide how much of certain regulations apply to ships of GT <150. So if the MCA say it's ok for a tender to not have X, Y or Z what happens when operating in other countries' territorial waters?

[Pilot Chris]

Hi CD

This is an interesting one as I had experience negotiating with another country whilst operating in their port, basically each tender has a certificate and restrictions (such as not operating more than 3 miles from ship or port etc) which must be adhered to, often most major ports have sections in their legislation which allow the use of passenger tenders subject to the ships flags regulations and obviously if they are not operating as per that Tender Safety Certificate they can take action.

The MCA were of the view that as long as the Tenders were operating in line of sight, or could be controlled by the bridge in Res-Vis and darkness then they had no need to carry ECDIS, ARPA etc, but they should carry a "chartlet" of the area and a briefing must occur (which should be logged) prior to the day.

I have never seen a Port State Control on a tender though! and my experiencing whilst negotiating with another country to the flag of the vessel was more from an head office point of view and was prior to the port call. During a PSSC the MCA will always do several runs on the tenders to verify ability and compliance.

[CharlieDelta]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for that. Cleared it right up for me. The bit I was most confused about was operation in other countries' territorial waters (i.e. the MCA might say the tender can operate with a tender safety certificate but what if country X disagrees). But then if these countries are accepting tender calls from cruise ships they would, I assume, have some sort of provision in their local laws.

The MCA were of the view that as long as the Tenders were operating in line of sight, or could be controlled by the bridge in Res-Vis and darkness then they had no need to carry ECDIS, ARPA etc, but they should carry a "chartlet" of the area and a briefing must occur (which should be logged) prior to the day.

This ties in with my experience. Chartlets, tender briefings and continuous monitoring from the bridge.

Thanks again!

Chris