Checking for Compliance with The Recreational Craft Directive

_Yacht Surveyor

	Checking for Compliance with The Recreational Craft Directive

	A buyer may be interested to know whether a yacht indeed complies with the Recreational Craft Directive as it is said to.

	Unfortunately this would require very extensive surveys. For category A and B there would also be required a stability study and inclination experiment. Tests on the materials would be required to confirm compliance with the required ISO standards, these would be destructive.

	The things to do instead would be to check the CIN number is marked on the stern, that there is a CE Plate also affixed to the boat.

	The existence of an owners manual should also be checked for (this may often not be available on board).

	The buyer should be alerted if the CIN number marking or the CE Plate is not a valid format, strange or has been altered. Otherwise he may be alerted if the owners manual does not refer to an identical yacht model.

	Further checking would be to request the technical file from the shipyard. This file is required to be made for any model in compliance with the directive.

	The owners manual and technical file should refer to an identical yacht model. It is not possible to for a manufacturer to have a yacht model certified for compliance with RCD and then make major changes to a subsequent version of the model and produce the paperwork from the previous version.