The Merchant Shipping (High Speed Offshore Service Craft) Regulations 2022

Application

3.—(1) These Regulations apply to high speed offshore service craft (“ HSOSC”).

(2) An HSOSC is a craft which—

(a) is either a United Kingdom high speed craft, or any other high speed craft in United Kingdom waters,

(b) is operating—

(i) at sea, or

(ii) in Category A, B, C or D waters,

(c) is of less than 500 tons gross tonnage,

(d) is engaged in an operation to transport the following persons from one place to another, including any part of that operation where they are not on board—

(i) at least one industrial personnel, and

(ii) no more than 12 persons who are not industrial personnel or the master or crew,

(e) is not, during that operation, carrying more than 60 persons on board at any point in time, whoever those persons are, and

(f) is not—

(i) a pleasure vessel,

(ii) a warship, naval auxiliary or another craft owned or operated by a State and used, for the time being, only on government non-commercial service,

(iii) propelled other than by mechanical means,

(iv) a wooden craft of primitive build,

(v) a fishing vessel, or

(vi) engaged in a voyage from a port in one State to a port in another State.

(3) In this regulation—

“Category A, B, C or D waters” means waters specified as such in the Merchant Shipping Notice entitled MSN 1837 (M) Amendment 2(1);

“craft” means ships and hovercraft;

“gross tonnage” has the meaning given by regulation 6 of the Merchant Shipping (Tonnage) Regulations 1997(2);

“high speed craft” has the same meaning as in the Merchant Shipping (High Speed Craft) Regulations 2004(3) (see regulation 2 of those Regulations);

“industrial personnel” means persons who are transported or accommodated on board for the purpose of offshore industrial activities performed on board other ships or on offshore facilities;

“offshore industrial activities” means the construction, maintenance, decommissioning, operation or servicing of offshore facilities related to the exploration and exploitation of resources by the renewable or hydrocarbon energy sectors, aquaculture, ocean mining or similar activities;

“pleasure vessel” has the same meaning as in the Merchant Shipping (Survey and Certification) Regulations 2015(4) (see regulation 3(1) of those Regulations);

“United Kingdom high speed craft” means a high speed craft which is a United Kingdom ship or hovercraft registered in the United Kingdom.

(1)

A copy of this notice may be seen at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/msn-1837-m-amendment-2-categorisation-of-waters or obtained by writing to the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton, SO15 1EG.

(2)

S.I. 1997/1510, to which there are amendments not relevant to these Regulations.

(3)

S.I. 2004/302, amended by S.I. 2005/2114 and 2012/2636. There are other amendments but none are relevant.

(4)

S.I. 2015/508, amended by S.I. 2018/53. There are other amendments but none are relevant.