Saturday, Feb 14, 2009 at 15:56
Steve - your rules will be different to ours because your in the territory and not one of the states.
That said - usually theres a set of rules that most agencies seem to borrow from each other, in order to try and standardise across the nation.
Withour hire ndrive rules the boats have to be in survey standard - you have to have a rescue boat to go get people who break down caosize or sink etc.
Usualluy you have to have contact via radio gps epirb etc as weell and all the usual safety gear i.e. mutliple sized lifejackets to fit all sizes of potential hirers not just 3 standard ones for each dinghy.
Theft of the boats, is a real issue - people like to pinch them, simple as that! This CAN be combatted with the same technology the hire car co's use, GPS tracking devices - so you can call in the location of the stolen vessel to the police.
Public liability insurance is big.
Under the new legislation here all your customers have to have a rec skippers ticket (meaning usually they have their own boat anyway)
Depreciation/repairs are expensive and a big part of the income goes here becaise people do drive them like they stole them.
It could be done - whether it is gonna make you an instant zillionaire is up for debate.
As for taking boat tours SOME can be quite profitable If you have all the quals and licenses etc etc - down here again - you need all the public liability insurance, and licenses from Fisheries CALM (DEC) Marine Transport and so on and so
forth.
I reckon "outgoings" each year to one or another govt department to be able to legally operate are about $20K before you start..
Again it seems ot be different in the territory - every man and his dog with a tinny is a fishing guide in the Teritory and I've yet to see a Surveyed Passenger Vessel Sticker from marine transport on AAAAAAAAANY of the "tour" boats that feature in TV fishing shows catching barra out of the Top end
IN WA it is a different story and our authorities are anal about the rules and regs!
I reckon if you do it and get a foot in the door before they regulate the industry - you'll likely end up getting the eventual licenses when they are issued as long as your prepared to jump thru the hoops - and the licenses to be able to hire boats in that area might be worth something as a resle asset one day (maybe!).
Its capital intensive and when somepone does get their arm torn off by a crock - releasing a barra, THEIR insurer WILL sue you to recover their payout costs which is fine as long as YOUR insurer stand behind you!
I've seen a few examples where guys in this industry (one guy with a parasailing business in particular) who lost everything - because is insurer bailed on him - leaving him liable.
It was a weird high court decision - based on some old "marine insurance precdents" from back in the days of sail transport, called "peril of the sea" - where insurters can't be held liable for injury death or losses at sea! What was weord about it was - the accident that paralysed a lady from the waiste down - happened in the Swan river in the middle of the city near the narrows
bridge.
The Insuers argued (successfully) to the 3 high court magistrates - that becaise it was summer and the swan River is open to the sea 12
miles away at
Fremantle and the river can be salty and tidal in summer when fresh water flows are minimal - that the area of river that the accident happened in was "OCEAN".
Their defense of "peril of the sea" was upheld, the insurer deemed "not liable" - and thus the operator was found totally culpable for the court awarded multi million damages payout etc etc
Lost his house and boat and car - everything, the boat and parasail equip has been for sale here forever.
The risks are real - unfortunately - in water activities - its a high risk venture - the public liability & 3rd party insurances etc will be steep and as shown may NOT be worth the paper they are printed on when it all comes down to the wire.
Probably would be a good lifestyle venture.
To do the tours rather than boat hire - likely youd be required to hold a restricted coxswains cert at minimum.
If you do the tours, you'd need specialised tour punts/catamarans that could accomoate a tour bus compliment (or 2 or 3) all at the one go.
Such tours used to operate in the Gorges at
Katherine from memory and at Geiki
Gorge, but from memory the Geiki
Gorge ones were owned / run by CALM DEC - they do seem to have a policy of keeping as much or ALL of the tourism revenues from their nat parks etc wherever they can and the Geiki Gorge/
Monkey Mia Dolphins etc are calssic examples - they even tried to put a local operator out of business in Walpole - so they could start their own tours business for the revenues.
Whatever you do go intyo it with your eyes open and do your homework.
Cheers
AnswerID:
349039