Vessel Safety and Commercial Licencing

All the vessels we work with are licensed for commercial charter and have vessel insurance and third party liability insurance. You may find text on our website refer to a vessel being commercially coded. This means the license to operate requires that the vessels, equipment, operating procedures, emergency communications and distress signals, search and rescue, staffing and crew qualifications and refresher training are to a strict code of practice.

We require each vessel operator to confirm every year to Classic Sailing that the are ‘up to code’ which means their licence is current and their vessel and operations have been inspected.

The level of equipment carried, staff qualifications and radio communications depends on the operating area. for the appropriate sailing areas that they work in.

As we work with vessels from a mix of countries, requirements vary but are generally policed by the national agency responsible for all Merchant ship safety, not just sailing vessels.

• In the UK the Agency is the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA)

We aim to add more details of each ships code of practice on the individual vessel pages on this new website.

Our Office Team Understand Maritime Legislation

These are complex codes of practice so it is hard to precis them in layman’s terms, so this will take a while. You can always ring us if you have any concerns.

Debbie and Adam have been to Nautical College and passed big ship course on stability, radio operator, Navigation and radar, business and law. Debbie passed her Ships Master 200 ton (sailing ships) and Office of The Watch for Sail Training Ships upto 3000 ton, and spent many years with surveyors conducting vessel inspections.

Adam was once ship wrecked, Debbie has had to rescue a man overboard. (None of these were on a Classic Sailing Vessels past or present.)

We take your safety very seriously and will immediately follow up any concerns with a vessels operations manager or owner.

Classic Sailing as a company will only work with vessels that we feel have the right attitude to safe adventures, and our agreements with the vessel owners stipulate that they must be commercially licensed by their relevant ships registration country and are fully insured for commercial operations.