How to start a fishing charter in the UK

Taking paying anglers to sea is a business, and the law treats your boat as a commercial vessel the moment anyone pays to be on it. That means a coded boat, a skipper with the right tickets and cover that pays out if something goes wrong. It takes planning, and surveys and courses take time to book, so start early.

This guide is for boats that go to sea with up to 12 anglers. It links each rule to where it’s written down, because the rules change and the source is always right. It isn’t legal advice: your certifying authority and your harbour have the final word.

Get your boat coded

A boat that takes paying passengers to sea must hold a certificate showing it meets a Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) code of practice. Skippers call this being “coded”. Taking paying anglers out on a boat that isn’t coded is against the law.

Since 12 December 2025, the code for charter boats is the Sport or Pleasure Vessel Code. It covers boats under 24 metres in commercial use for sport or pleasure at sea, carrying no more than 12 passengers, and it replaces MGN 280 and the old colour codes for these boats.

1. Choose a certifying authority, such as the RYA, and ask for their coding form. Some of their pages may still mention MGN 280.
2. Agree how far out you want to fish, and write a risk assessment for your trips. The area you’re coded for decides the safety kit you carry and the tickets your skipper needs.
3. Have the boat surveyed, out of the water and in it, with its stability and safety equipment checked.
4. Put right anything the surveyor finds.
5. Get your certificate.

A certificate lasts up to five years, with annual and intermediate examinations in between. It stops being valid if you miss one, so put them in your diary.

What if I only fish inside a river or estuary?

The code covers boats that go to sea, which means beyond the sheltered waters the MCA calls categorised waters. Inside them, boats carrying passengers may need a licence from the local council or harbour authority instead. Ask your harbour master which applies to your trips.

What if my boat is already coded?

If your boat was coded under MGN 280 or one of the colour codes, you don’t need to start again straight away. It must meet the new code by its next renewal examination or three years after the code came in, whichever is later. Your certifying authority will tell you what changes, if anything.

What about the Workboat Code?

The Workboat Code is for boats working commercially for anything other than sport or pleasure, such as survey or crew transfer. A boat taking anglers fishing is sport or pleasure, so it’s coded under the Sport or Pleasure Vessel Code instead.

Get your skipper’s tickets

Whoever skippers a coded boat needs a certificate of competence with a commercial endorsement. Which certificate depends on the boat and how far out you’re coded to go, and the code sets out which covers what. The RYA lists what a commercial endorsement needs:

• a certificate of competence that covers your boat and your area, such as Advanced Powerboat or Yachtmaster Coastal (Powerboat Level 2 only covers open boats and RIBs under 10 metres, within 3 miles of land in daylight and good weather)
• a medical fitness certificate (ML5, or ENG1 for the furthest waters)
• a sea survival course
• a VHF radio operator’s certificate
• the Professional Practices and Responsibilities course

An endorsement lasts five years. Anyone who skippers for you, even for a day, needs their own.

Can I skipper alone?

Only if your certifying authority agrees, and then only within 20 miles of a safe haven and in good weather. Plan on a second person on board. Even when you’re allowed to skipper alone with anglers on board, the code asks for someone briefed to help you in an emergency.

What does my crew need?

Everyone who works on board needs the training the code asks for, such as sea survival. Someone on board needs a first aid certificate, and the skipper or a crew member a firefighting course. On boats of 15 metres or more, the skipper and a crew member both need one. Your certifying authority will check this when they code the boat.

Get insured

A policy for a private boat isn’t written for paying passengers. You need a marine policy for charter work, with passenger liability and third-party cover. Your harbour authority or local council can set the cover you need, so ask before you run trips. If you employ crew, ask your broker about employers’ liability cover too.

A marine broker who already insures charter boats can quote for all of it at once, and will ask for your coding certificate and your skipper’s tickets.

Anglers look for it too. On Gillie, say you’re insured in your booking terms, and anglers see “Fully insured” on every trip page and at checkout.

Find a berth and a place to meet

You’ll need a berth you can reach early and leave from on time, and somewhere anglers can park and find you. Talk to the harbour master before you sign anything, as your harbour authority or local council may license boats that carry passengers.

Write down exactly where you meet, with a landmark anglers can spot from the car park. It saves a phone call on every trip.

Know the fishing rules on your boat

A charter where anglers fish for pleasure, and none of the catch is sold, is recreational fishing. Your anglers fish under the recreational rules, even if your boat also holds a commercial fishing licence. If any of the catch is sold, the whole trip becomes commercial fishing, so the fish stay with the anglers who caught them.

• Bass has its own limits on how many an angler can keep, when and at what size. They’re in the government’s bass guidance, which has a section for charter boats.
• Other species have minimum sizes, and byelaws can add to them for your stretch of coast: from your Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) in England, or the Welsh Government, Marine Directorate or DAERA elsewhere.
• Rod licences aren’t needed for sea fish. Anglers need one for salmon, trout, eels and freshwater fish in England and Wales.

Before you leave the harbour, give everyone the safety briefing the code asks for, covering lifejackets and what to do in an emergency. Then tell anglers the fishing rules for the day. They’ll expect you to know them.

Set up the business

Many skippers start as a sole trader. Set up as a sole trader with HMRC, keep your records from the first trip, and fill in a Self Assessment tax return each year, or use Making Tax Digital once your turnover, before expenses, passes its threshold. You must register for VAT once your turnover passes the threshold; until then it’s your choice.

Keep the money from trips in a separate bank account. It makes your tax return quicker and shows your insurer and your accountant what came from where.

Take bookings and deposits

A charter is a leisure service booked for a fixed date, so the 14-day right to cancel that applies to most things bought online doesn’t apply. What happens when an angler cancels, or you call a trip off for the weather, is up to your own booking terms, so write them down and show them before anyone pays. They must also be fair: a deposit you keep when someone cancels late should reflect what it really costs you.

Good booking terms answer three questions:

• How much is the deposit, and when is the rest due? A deposit holds the date. Some skippers take the rest a few days before the trip, others on the day.
• What if the angler cancels? Say how close to the date you still refund, and when you only move the booking to another date.
• What if you call it off for the weather? Say whether anglers get a refund, a new date or their choice, and how early you’ll tell them.

On Gillie, these are your booking terms: anglers agree to them at checkout, and when you call off a date everyone on it can move for free or take a full refund.

Decide too whether you sell places, so strangers can share the boat, or the whole boat to one party, or both. Whole-boat trips fill the boat in one booking; shared trips let one or two anglers come out.

A checklist before your first paying trip

• Your boat is coded for the waters you’ll fish, with its examinations in your diary.
• Everyone who works on board has the training the code asks for, and whoever skippers holds a commercially endorsed certificate.
• You know who your second person on board is.
• Your insurance covers paying passengers, and your harbour or council has seen it.
• You have a berth and a meeting point anglers can find.
• You have a safety briefing ready, and know the catch rules for bass and anything else you’ll fish for.
• You’ve told HMRC you’re self-employed.
• Your booking terms say what happens when someone cancels and when the weather turns.