Charter fleet

Every charter starts from a vessel. The fleet register holds the vessel name, the number of passengers it may carry, the crew it needs to sail and the date its next inspection falls due. The Charter Coordinator keeps these values current, because they set the limits for every booking that follows. A catamaran licensed for twelve guests should never be confirmed for a party of fourteen. A motor yacht whose inspection falls due in the middle of a charter needs a decision before the customer receives a confirmation.

New vessels enter through a capture step. It checks the vessel name, passenger capacity, crew required and inspection due date before the record is saved, and it records who added the vessel. Half-entered vessels stay out of the booking screens. When a vessel is sold or laid up, keep its record so past bookings still point to the right hull.

The fleet register is reference data for charters. A booking points to a vessel and reads its limits from there. Change a figure on the vessel and the next confirmation uses the new limit, while past bookings keep their link to the vessel they actually used.

• One record per hull. Give each vessel a single entry and a stable name. Sister ships with the same layout still get separate records, because inspections and bookings are tracked per hull.
• Capacity and crew as limits. Passenger capacity and crew required are the numbers the Charter Coordinator checks when confirming a booking and choosing a crew lead.
• Inspection due as a hold point. The inspection due date tells the coordinator when a vessel must come off the schedule. Plan the survey around confirmed charters and enter the new date once the certificate is renewed.

Agree where passenger capacity comes from: the licensed figure on the vessel’s certificate, or a lower commercial limit your company sets for comfort. Use one rule across the fleet. Agree how crew required is counted, including whether the crew lead is part of that number. Decide who may change an inspection due date and what evidence they keep, since a later date puts the vessel back on sale. Load current inspection dates from your certificates before the sales team starts confirming charters.

An 80-foot motor yacht is licensed for twelve passengers and needs three crew. Its annual inspection falls due on June 20. A customer asks for a five-day charter starting June 17. The Charter Coordinator opens the vessel, sees the inspection date falls inside the charter, and keeps the request at Requested while the surveyor is asked for an earlier slot.

The survey is completed on June 10 and the coordinator enters next year’s due date. The vessel drops off the Inspections Due screen, and the coordinator confirms the charter and assigns a crew lead from the crew register. If the survey had slipped, the coordinator would have offered a sister ship or cancelled the request, and the customer’s record would show both outcomes.

Rehearse the same case during setup. Enter a vessel with no passenger capacity and confirm the capture step refuses it. Then move an inspection date into the past and check that the vessel appears on Inspections Due.

• Fleet Register — Every vessel with its passenger capacity, crew required and next inspection date, used when quoting a charter.
• Inspections Due — Vessels whose inspection date has arrived or passed, so they come off the schedule before a booking is confirmed.

• Charter request to completion: Take a charter from request through confirmation, departure and completion on the right vessel.

Review the data model before loading your fleet, and plan the rollout.