BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide
How many people aboard? Legal capacity vs comfortable capacity
12 passengers maximum, design categories, children counted: understanding a rental boat's capacity — and why 8 seats never equal 8 adults.
'We'll be 13, is that OK?' No — and it is not the operator's call: a boat's capacity is a regulatory limit, checked at sea, and exceeding it voids the insurance. Here is how it works.
The rule of 12
In recreational rental it is 12 passengers maximum whatever the boat (beyond that you enter 'passenger ship' regulation — another world). Each boat then displays ITS capacity, set by design category and certification: 6, 8, 10 or 12 people — children count as whole people, babies included.
Legal capacity ≠ comfortable capacity
A RIB certified for 10 carries 10 people seated under way — not 10 adults sprawled in the sun with cool boxes and paddleboards. The regulars' golden rule: legal capacity minus 2 = a comfortable day. For a sailing week, count real double berths, not 'convertible' saloon benches.
What gets checked at sea
Patrols verify the headcount, the lifejackets (one per person, correct sizes) and the safety equipment for the zone. Exceeding = fine, return to port, and above all void insurance if anything goes wrong — the real sanction.
The booking reflex
Filter by the real number of participants (Boat-Comparator discards too-small boats when capacity is published), and for 12+ groups move up a format: two boats in flotilla — often more fun — or a skippered day-charter built for it.