In general, the supervision of the construction, modernisation and alteration of floating structures shall be governed by the Cabinet Regulation No. 439 Adopted 7 June 2011 Regulations Regarding the Implementation of Flag State Supervision of Ships, Chapter 4 “Supervision of the Construction and Modernisation or Alteration of Latvian Ships”. In accordance with these Regulations, Latvian ships are constructed in compliance with the requirements of a recognised organisation in accordance with SOLAS Convention Chapter II-1, Part A-1, Regulation 3-1.
It should be noted that in Latvia floating structures are often self-built for the purpose of passenger rides or for commercial hire. Such self-built floating structures (self-propelled or not) are prohibited to be used for commercial purposes for the carriage of passengers, regardless of the area of operation of the floating structure and the number of passengers to be carried. It should also be borne in mind that if a floating structure is intended to carry more than 12 passengers, such a floating structure is automatically classified as a passenger ship and such a ship is subject at least to the requirements of Cabinet Regulation No. 49 Adopted 29 January 2008 “Regulations Regarding the Safety of Ships” and Cabinet Regulation No. 80 Adopted 24 January 2006 Regulations Regarding the Minimum Safe Manning of Ships.
In fact, the “legalisation” of a homemade floating structure for the commercial carriage of passengers or for placing passengers on such a structure for the purpose of continuing commercial carriage of passengers is technically not feasible and financially extremely costly when compared to the value of the floating structure itself.
At present, the only way a self-built floating structure could be legalised for commercial use would theoretically be to carry out an after-build assessment of the structure and to rebuild it (if at all possible) so that it complies with the requirements of the Cabinet Regulation No. 201 Adopted 25 March 2008 “Regulations Regarding the Safety of Recreational Crafts”.
Similarly to a self-built recreational craft, the owner must conclude a contract with one of the Notified Bodies, which is authorised to carry out a pre-construction assessment in accordance with the Cabinet Regulation No. 27 Adopted 12 January 2016 “Regulations Regarding Building, Conformity Assessment and Making Available on the Market of Recreational Craft and Personal Watercraft”, which implements the requirements of Directive 2013/53/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on recreational craft and personal watercraft in the Republic of Latvia. The owner will also have to prepare the technical documentation required for the Notified Body’s post-construction procedure. If the owner cannot do this himself, he will have to contract a designer who will undertake to prepare the design and documentation required by the Notified Body contracted by the owner. As a result of the completion of the pre-construction assessment, the Notified Body will issue a certificate that the vessel complies with the requirements for a recreational craft. The owner can then register the floating structure in the Latvian Ship Register as a recreational craft intended for commercial use.
There are no special requirements for floating structures built for private use.
Information on notified bodies authorised to carry out post-construction assessment
