It would be easy to think of the superyacht niche as being the cream sitting atop the vat of milk that is the general marine industry. While we can be proud of this perception, it comes with a problem – we are frequently left on the sidelines when it comes to regulations and codes. As the International Maritime Organization (IMO) continuously drills new rules for commercial vessels, superyachts are often faced with the nightmare of trying to comply with elements that simply don’t fit what we are or how we do things.

It is one of the reasons that the original Large Yacht code was developed at the end of the 1990s, with subsequent revisions, and why the Passenger Yacht Code (PYC) was more recently drawn up to cater to vessels seeking more realistic compliance or equivalence with the weighty demands of SOLAS regulations.

In a recently announced move, The Red Ensign Group – arbiters of LY3 and PYC – has announced plans to merge LY3 and PYC under one umbrella code which will be called The Red Ensign Group Yacht Code (REG YC). In an ongoing consultation process with several key areas of our industry, REG is taking the opportunity not only to rationalise common parts of both codes (for example, helidecks), but also to garner input from yards, designers, owners and their teams, yacht managers, captains and other associated industry stakeholders in order to suggest and direct revisions to the base codes. It’s a unique opportunity for us all to have our say and help mould the rules that we live by.

In addition, the Superyacht Intelligence Agency is undertaking a comprehensive research project with The Red Ensign group not only to understand the perceptions of code within the industry, but also to give decision-makers from the owner, design and operations segments the chance to comment on and influence the development of the new yacht code.

If you are a key decision-maker or influencer in any of the above areas, we would like to invite you to take part in the survey. It is your chance to have your say and to help shape a key part of our industry that impacts on everything from the earliest stages of superyacht design to the day-to-day running of the finished yacht.

Please click here to take part in the survey.

All information you provide will remain anonymous unless you select otherwise, and the survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete.

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