Just as one needs to register a new car, a new boat too needs registration. The process is spelt out in great detail in the Guidelines/instructions for the construction, survey, certification and operation of pleasure crafts found on the website of the Directorate General of Shipping under DGS Order for 2016.
Since Antara is the first sail boat to be built and registered in India for commercial sailing as a Category 1 craft, and this was our first ever boat, we often found ourselves flummoxed with the process.
The first step was to get a login ID from DG Shipping. For some reason, this took us almost 3 months. We were both travelling at the time and it was the monsoon season, so we saw no need to push our case. Come September, things got sorted out and we got our online application number.
Next was to get the name for our boat approved. A boat is always feminine and like all parents to be, we pored over books of names and pestered our friends for suggestions. Our final shortlist was Antara (the second stanza in Indian classical music), Akshata (auspicious offering) and Dolma (girl in Tibetan). While I was on tenterhooks till we got the approval, it was Dilip who eagerly recorded the fact for posterity! We later changed the black lettering to white, for better visibility.
Next we needed to do a tonnage computation and get ourselves a Carving Marking note. So we could put up her name and port of registration as well as a brass plate with her official number (4571), her net tonnage (typically, the space available for cargo and passengers: 5 tonnes), MMSI number (419001412 Maritime Mobile Service Identity number used to uniquely identify a ship by Communication and Safety Equipment) ) and her international call sign ‘VTAH’.
The placement of the plaque and the names of the boat and the port were physically inspected and officially approved by the Surveyor of the Mercantile Marine Department on behalf of the DGS. We have minimal graffiti on Antara as she is a sail boat, but take a look at this interesting article if you want to read more about a ship’s markings.
Next up was an Inclining Experiment and the boat builder, Ratnakar Dandekar of Aquarius Shipyard, had to do some complicated calculations for a request for a Class Survey. This can be done by the Indian Register of Shipping, the IRS or RINA or a dozen other classification societies around the world such as LR, DNV GL etc. We chose to go with RINA.
As a Category 1 boat, Antara is also covered with hull and crew insurance. This too requires a survey by another independent surveyor affiliated with the insurance provider. We have hull cover form New India Assurance and crew & boat cover from Maritime Mutual.
And of course, the safety survey to ensure that we are adequately equipped to sail the high seas with an approved crew size of unto 10 people. It’s a long list, so in our next newsletter we’ll share what went into kitting her out: all the equipment that we needed, or wanted, to ensure we had a safe, sail worthy boat.
Finally, a Surveyor from RINA inspected Antara using a Checklist provided by the DGS. We pre-filled it to save time and to ensure we had all the documentation and requirements ticked off.
A long process, all above board and professionally done, and we had Antara registered and ready to move by mid April-2018.
Safety is a priority on Antara. Check out our next newsletter for more about how we have ensured that our guests sail with complete peace of mind.
You can also check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and our website