The certificate is the venue contract that outranks your venue contract

A yacht is the only venue in South Florida where a federal agency, not the owner, sets the guest count. For any U.S. vessel carrying more than six passengers for hire, that authority lives in a single document: the Coast Guard Certificate of Inspection (COI). It describes the vessel, the routes it may travel, minimum manning, the survival craft and lifejackets required aboard, the maximum number of passengers and total persons, overnight capacity, and any other conditions the local Officer in Charge, Marine Inspection (OCMI) imposes.

Notice what that list does not include. It says nothing about your bar, your buffet, your playlist, your sparkler exit or your rain date. Those are governed by an entirely different stack of state licenses, contracts and physical constraints — and that gap is where most boat weddings and corporate charters go sideways.

Read these four lines before you read the price

• Passengers permitted. Set under 46 CFR 176.113 using length of rail, deck area or fixed seating — whichever criterion the vessel qualifies for. It is a physics number, not a hospitality number.
• Total persons permitted. Determined by the OCMI under 46 CFR 176.112, weighing passenger and crew weight, variable loads, stability and subdivision limits, escape routes, lifesaving gear and manning. Passengers plus crew plus your vendors must fit under this ceiling.
• Route. Recorded under 46 CFR 176.110 as Oceans, Coastwise, Limited Coastwise, Lakes/Bays/Sounds or Rivers, with geographic and seasonal limits. A vessel rated for protected water cannot take your ceremony offshore for the sunset shot because the client asked nicely.
• Overnight accommodation. A separate figure. Docked-and-sleeping is a different authorization than cruising.

One more number worth knowing: the Coast Guard's assumed average weight per person is 185 pounds, raised in a 2010 rulemaking specifically because Americans got heavier. Capacity on the water is a weight-and-stability calculation wearing a hospitality costume.

Six, twelve, or a hundred and fifty: which rulebook is this boat under?

Before you compare quotes, work out which regime the vessel operates in — because the categories are not marketing tiers, they are separate legal universes with different equipment, crew and inspection burdens.

The bareboat structure is where South Florida events most often get into trouble. It only holds if the charterer genuinely takes control of the vessel — including choosing the captain. Coast Guard investigators have repeatedly terminated voyages after finding a "bareboat" client was simply handed a captain with no choice, which collapses the arrangement into an illegal uninspected passenger vessel mid-event.

This is not a theoretical risk on our water. In an August 2025 public warning, the Coast Guard Southeast District said its crews had stopped more than 100 illegal charter operations since January of that year across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the USVI. The same release makes the client-side point bluntly: if a voyage is terminated because the operator lacks proper credentials, the money passengers paid may simply be gone. There is no force majeure clause that refunds a wedding.

The verification pass, before the deposit

• Ask for the COI itself, not the brochure capacity. Vessels over six passengers post it, along with an inspection decal.
• Ask the captain to show a Merchant Mariner Credential. If they can't, the Coast Guard's advice is to not board.
• Check that the quoted guest count sits under both the passenger figure and the total-persons figure once your vendors are added.
• Treat a price far below comparable South Florida charters as a warning, not a win — it is the first item on the Coast Guard's own list of red flags.

Your vendors are on the manifest too

Here is the definition that quietly reshapes your run of show. Under 46 CFR 175.400, a "passenger" is anyone carried aboard except the owner or their representative, the charterer or their representative, the master, and a member of the crew engaged in the vessel's business who has not paid for carriage and who is paid for onboard services.

Whether your servers, bartenders, DJ, photographer and coordinator are counted as passengers or as crew depends on how they are engaged and how the operator's manifest is structured — and that determination belongs to the vessel's operator and the cognizant OCMI, not to your planner's spreadsheet. What you can control is arriving with a fixed, named service team small enough to work inside the total-persons ceiling. That is why crew and service staffing for a vessel is planned backwards from the certificate: you decide how many bodies you are willing to spend on service, then design the menu that two fewer people can execute.

Catering: the galley is not a kitchen, and the dock is your only door

Most charter galleys are finishing spaces — reheat, plate, garnish. They are not production kitchens, and on many vessels open-flame or portable cooking equipment is restricted or prohibited outright. In Florida, food prepared for service elsewhere under an event contract is a licensed activity: caterers are classified as public food service establishments by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, and operate from a licensed kitchen or commissary, as DBPR's own catering guidance lays out. "The charter said we can bring anyone" does not create a licensed caterer.

The physical constraints are just as decisive as the legal ones:

• One gangway, one direction. Every rack, chafer, ice bag and floral piece crosses a single narrow point, usually on a tide-dependent slope, usually while guests are arriving.
• No walk-in, no dumpster. Cold chain runs on what you can carry and hold. Everything that comes aboard — including waste — goes back off through that same gangway.
• Fixed water and power. Induction, hot boxes and chargers compete with the vessel's own load. Confirm circuits before you design a station.
• Motion. Tall plating, tiered displays and shallow sauces behave differently in a beam sea than they do in a ballroom.

These constraints do not make onboard catering worse — they make it a different discipline. Menus built for onboard service favor stable formats, staged holding, and stations that need fewer hands than their land equivalents.

Alcohol is a state question, not a Coast Guard one

Your COI is silent on liquor. Florida's beverage law is not. Under Fla. Stat. § 565.02, operators of pleasure, excursion, sightseeing and charter boats without regular round-trip runs of more than 100 miles in each direction may obtain licenses with the boat designated as their place of business, on the same terms as any premises where on-site consumption is permitted. The statute also provides a specific path for charter boats with a Coast Guard-approved capacity of at least 125 passengers: a special liquor license covering service for up to one hour before departure while docked, and during the chartered cruise itself.

What that means for you, practically: find out early whether alcohol on your charter will be sold, hosted by the charter operator under its license, or supplied by you. The three models carry different licensing, different insurance posture and different service rules. Settle it in writing before menus, because it changes who staffs the bar and what they are permitted to pour.

This article is general information about how these systems work, not legal, licensing or tax advice. Vessel status, licensing and permitting are fact-specific — verify with the cognizant Coast Guard Sector, the Florida DBPR and your own counsel before you sign.

The sunset photo everyone wants, and the stability letter nobody reads

Under 46 CFR 170.120, an inspected vessel must have a Coast Guard-issued stability letter before entering service, and it sets conditions of operation. Those conditions exist because a vessel's behavior changes when weight moves — and nothing moves weight like a photographer saying "everyone come to this rail, the light is perfect."

The captain has final authority over that moment, and over the guest movement, deck closures and speed that surround it. Build your timeline so the money shots happen where the crew wants them to happen. Coordinate the ceremony start against the safety announcement required by 46 CFR 185.506 — the master must brief passengers on emergency exits, lifejacket stowage and donning, and placard locations before getting underway or as soon as practicable after. That briefing is not optional and it does not move for your processional.

Weather is a route decision, not a cancellation decision

The certificate gives you a Plan B most planners never ask about: operating on a route of lesser severity than the one designated is permitted unless the COI expressly forbids it. If conditions build offshore, a vessel certificated for coastwise work can often stay inside protected water instead of scrubbing. Ask the operator, in writing, what the inside-water version of your itinerary looks like — sightlines, duration, dock time — so your clients see the alternative before the day it matters, not during it. Building and rehearsing that alternate run of show is the core of event production on the water.

Two constraints that surprise almost everyone

Foreign-flagged yachts cannot move your guests between two U.S. points

Under the Passenger Vessel Services Act, 46 U.S.C. § 55103, a vessel may not transport passengers between U.S. coastwise points unless it is wholly U.S.-owned for coastwise trade and holds a coastwise endorsement. The statutory penalty is stated per passenger transported and landed, and CBP has applied inflation adjustments that push the figure far above the number printed in the code. So: boarding in Miami and disembarking in Fort Lauderdale is a different legal act than a round trip that returns to the same dock. If a spectacular foreign-flag yacht is on your shortlist, design a round trip and confirm the vessel's status in writing.

There are still no enforceable ADA standards for vessels

The U.S. Access Board has developed passenger vessel accessibility guidelines, but owners and operators are not required to comply until DOT and DOJ adopt them as standards — and DOT has only reserved a subpart in anticipation. The practical consequence: accessibility on your charter is a procurement question, not a code question. Inspect it yourself. Gangway slope at your actual tide window, coamings and door thresholds, whether guests must use stairs to reach the ceremony deck, restroom dimensions, and where a guest using a wheelchair will actually sit during service. Then write the answers into the contract.

Fireworks, drones and anything that draws a crowd on the water

If your finale introduces extra or unusual hazards to safety of life on navigable waters — a fireworks barge, a parade of vessels, a spectator fleet — it can require a Coast Guard marine event permit under 33 CFR part 100. The timeline is the part that kills late ideas: the Application for Marine Event (Form CG-4423) must reach the appropriate Coast Guard Sector at least 135 days before the event, reduced to 60 days only for a substantially identical repeat of a previously approved event. A pyrotechnic finale is a four-and-a-half-month decision, not a four-week one. Managing that clock alongside the charter agreement, marina access and vendor certificates is exactly the coordination work charter and vendor coordination exists to absorb.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we bring our own caterer and our own bar?

Two separate answers. Food is governed by your charter agreement plus Florida licensing — an outside caterer must be a licensed public food service establishment operating from a licensed kitchen, and many vessels restrict outside food contractually regardless. Alcohol is governed by the beverage law and by whose license the service runs under. Get both answered in writing before you build a menu.

Does our headcount include the band, the photographer and the catering team?

They count against the vessel's total-persons figure, and whether they are treated as passengers or crew depends on how they're engaged and manifested. Plan every vendor body as a seat you are spending, and confirm the final manifest with the operator well before the week of the event.

What happens if the weather turns?

The captain decides. Often the outcome is a shorter or more protected route rather than a cancellation, because operating a less severe route than the one designated is generally permitted. Ask for that alternate itinerary in advance and hold a written cancellation and rescheduling standard in the charter agreement — refund terms are contract, not regulation.

Can we add guests at the dock?

No. The passenger and total-persons limits are hard ceilings, and boarding is the moment they get enforced. Close your list earlier than you would for a land venue and build in a buffer.

Is the vessel wheelchair accessible?

Ask for specifics, not a yes. Gangway slope at your tide window, thresholds, deck-to-deck access, and restroom clearances. Because no enforceable ADA vessel standards are in effect yet, whatever access your guests need has to be verified physically and written into the contract.

Can guests board in Miami and disembark in Fort Lauderdale?

Only on a coastwise-qualified vessel. Foreign-flagged and other non-coastwise-qualified vessels can't carry passengers between U.S. points, so plan a round trip to the same dock unless you have confirmed the vessel's documentation.

The decision this actually comes down to

A boat is not a ballroom that floats. It is a licensed vehicle that will let you host an event inside limits somebody else already wrote down — and the certificate is where you find out whether your event fits before you promise it to anyone.

So make the certificate the first document you request, not the last one you're shown. Read the passenger number, the total-persons number, the route and the overnight line. Subtract your crew, your band and your service team. If what's left is smaller than your guest list, you have learned something in April that would have been unbearable in October. The best charters look effortless because the planning team treated four lines of federal paperwork as the real venue contract — and designed everything else to fit inside them.