RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] selling rides

["Hugo Marrero" <hmarrero@hboi.edu>]

Carl,

Under the USCG guidelines, in order to carry passengers for hire you must be
a licensed captain. For a small submersible (one or two passengers), if I am
correct and the law has not changed, you will need at the very minimum a
six pack license. You will also have to keep current C.O.I. annually
(certificate of inspection), and the USCG has the authority to shut you down
indefinitely for any violation. Right now the depth limit for passenger
submersibles by the USCG is set at 150 ft, and is an uphill battle to
attempt to get an approval for anything deeper. To date, as far as I know
not one has ben approved in the US and its territories.

In addition to that you will have to get the submersible certified by ABS,
LLoyd or DNV in order to get insurance. Insurance will roughly costs around
$125K / year for Hull & Machinery, Equipment & General Liability. This does
not include any insurance coverage for loss of Income, which can vary
depending on the location.

This explains why businesses are not rushing ot open tourist submerible
operations. It is an extremely difficult business with complex logistics. To
this date most of those who have attempted to start one on their own have
failed because they either had no idea of what they were getting into or did
not analyzed the business carefully.

Yes, it can be profitable, and lots of fun, but there is very little margin
for error. To this date the largest and most successful tourist submerine
operator is Atlantis Adventures (Formerly Atlantis Submarines), and in order
to stay afloat they had entered into other businesses usch as park
management and other activities in addition to the tourist submarine rides.

regards,

Hugo





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