Do you need a boat survey?

If you are buying a Sea Raider for your own recreational use, the answer is almost certainly no.

“Survey” is one word covering two completely different things, and mixing them up is the most common confusion we hear from buyers. One is a legal requirement that applies only to vessels used commercially. The other is an optional inspection you can choose to arrange for your own peace of mind. Neither is something a recreational buyer is obliged to have.

Find yourself below — then read on for the detail.

Ordering a new boat for commercial work? Sea Raider can build to commercial survey. It has to be requested at the time of order and carries additional cost, because the vessel is inspected by an accredited marine surveyor as it is built.

Hiring boats out to the public? That is Class 4, a commercial vessel class of its own. It normally needs a certificate of survey, and it has to be specified before the build starts.

Already own a Sea Raider under 12 metres? Exemption 40 covers Class 2 and Class 3 vessels in restricted C, D and E waters. Not available for hire and drive.

Club, volunteer or sheltered-water work? Exemption 2 allows some vessels to operate commercially with no certificate of survey at all — including club and sporting vessels within 15 nautical miles.

Buying for your own recreational use? No survey is required, and none of the pathways above apply to you. You are still welcome to bring an independent marine surveyor to handover.

The two things people mean by “survey”

They are not two versions of the same process. They come from different places and do different jobs.

1. Commercial vessel survey — a legal requirement, commercial use only

If a vessel is used to earn money or carry paying passengers — charter, hire and drive (Class 4), commercial fishing, ferry work, tourism or paid training — it is a Domestic Commercial Vessel under Australia’s national marine safety law, regulated by AMSA. It must be certified and maintained “in survey”, which means:

• the design and construction are assessed and approved by an accredited marine surveyor, before and during the build
• the vessel holds a Certificate of Survey and a Certificate of Operation
• it is re-inspected periodically for the whole of its working life
• crew hold the relevant certificates of competency

The important part: a full certificate of survey is a construction standard, not a test a finished boat sits later. The vessel is inspected while it is being built, so a boat that was not built to survey is difficult and expensive to bring into survey afterwards — much of the evidence a surveyor needs is behind the lining, or was simply never gathered at the time.

It is not always impossible. A vessel that has been working under an exemption can later be issued a certificate of survey for the first time, and AMSA then treats it as a transitional vessel, applying transitional standards to it rather than the full standards for a new build. But that is a longer and harder road than specifying survey up front, with no guarantee at the end of it. See Already own a Sea Raider? below.

2. Pre-purchase or condition survey — optional, your choice

This is an independent inspection by a qualified marine surveyor that you engage and pay for, resulting in a written report. It is most common when buying a used boat, where the true condition and history are unknown. It comes in a few forms:

• pre-purchase survey — condition, defects and fair market value
• insurance survey — asked for by some insurers, usually on older vessels
• damage survey — assessing repair scope after an incident

Nothing legally requires it. It is entirely your call, and it has no bearing on whether a boat is allowed to be used recreationally.

Where Sea Raider stands

Sea Raider can build to commercial survey. It must be requested at the time of order, and it carries additional cost.

That condition is not red tape on our side. Survey is a construction standard, not a certificate issued to a finished boat. The design has to be approved, and then an accredited marine surveyor has to inspect the vessel as it is built — welds, structure and systems have to be seen before they are closed up and lined. Once a hull is finished and fitted out, that evidence is no longer there to look at. A vessel we have already built as a recreational vessel cannot simply be converted into a full survey vessel afterwards.

So the decision has to be made before construction starts. If there is any prospect of the vessel being worked commercially — now or later in its life — tell us at enquiry.

Building to survey costs more than the equivalent recreational build, and it adds time to the programme. The surveyor’s fees, the design assessment, the additional structural and safety requirements and the certification itself all sit on top of the standard vessel price. We will quote the survey component separately and in writing, so you can see exactly what it adds before you commit to anything.

Repeat builds of the same model cost less to certify

There is one part of that cost that does not repeat. AMSA recognises sister vessels — a vessel built to the same design as one already approved. A sister vessel can be certified using the original (or basis) vessel’s approved plans, instead of going through full plan approval from scratch.

That matters when you buy from us. Sea Raider is a production builder: we build the same proven models over and over, rather than drawing a new design for every customer. Plan approval is the slow, expensive part of getting a design into survey, and it is a cost per model — not something every buyer pays again from the beginning. For a hire operator putting a fleet on the water, that is the difference between paying for one design assessment and paying for several.

A sister vessel application still has to include:

• the basis vessel’s approved plans
• a written statement from a category ‘a’ (plan approval) accredited marine surveyor, confirming the designs match and that the service categories, crew, special personnel and passenger numbers and maximum speeds line up
• a lightship comparison report between the basis vessel and the new hull, covering weight and centre of gravity

Two things it does not change. The vessel still has to be surveyed right through construction and commissioning, exactly like any other new build — the sister vessel arrangement shortens plan approval, and nothing else. It is not a way to certify a hull that has already been finished. And it only helps where a vessel of that model has already been approved, so ask us where a particular model stands before you budget on it.

We will also be straight with you about what you are getting. If we build a hull to a survey standard, we will say so in those words — and we will tell you plainly what still has to happen, and what it will cost, before that vessel is actually in survey and able to be worked.

Hiring boats out to the public? That is Class 4

This is the pathway most often missed, because the people using the boat are not doing anything commercial at all. AMSA defines a Class 4 vessel as a “hire and drive vessel used by the hirer only for recreational purposes”.

Read that carefully. Your customer takes the boat out for a day’s fishing — recreation. But you, the operator hiring it to them, are running a Domestic Commercial Vessel. The obligation sits with you, not with them. If you hire boats to the public — tinnies, runabouts, houseboats, bareboat charter, a resort or caravan park fleet — this is your class.

A quick note on the wording, because it trips people up: class is the type of vessel, category is where it may operate. So a hire boat working partially smooth water is a Class 4D vessel. There is no such thing as a “Category 4” vessel.

What Class 4 requires

• A certificate of survey, unless the vessel qualifies for an exemption. Certificates are normally valid for five years.
• Exemption 40 is not available to you. It covers Class 2 and Class 3 only. This is the single most common mistake we see — operators assume the under-12-metre exemption covers a hire fleet. It does not.
• Exemption 2 is available, but the window is narrow. The vessel must be under 12 metres, in sheltered waters only, and must not be operated overnight. Overnight hire — houseboats, liveaboard charter — falls outside it and needs survey.
• A safety management system complying with Marine Order 504, including Schedule 1 and the hire-and-drive annex at Schedule 2.
• A briefing before every hire. You must brief each hirer before they take control of the vessel, and satisfy yourself they are competent to operate it. Passenger numbers are the responsibility of the person hiring the vessel, so put them in your hire documentation.

What that means when you order

If your fleet needs survey, it has to be specified before we start building — the same rule as any survey build, for the same reason. Tell us at enquiry that the boats are going into hire, how many you want, where they will operate and whether any will be hired overnight. Those four answers decide whether you need survey at all, and if so, what it will cost.

Fleets are also where the sister vessel arrangement earns its keep. Once one hull of a model has approved plans, the rest of the fleet can be certified against it rather than each boat going through plan approval on its own.

Free download: AMSA’s safety management system toolkit for Class 4

Every Class 4 operator needs a safety management system, and building one from a blank page is the part most operators dread. AMSA publishes a simplified toolkit written specifically for hire and drive. We host a copy here so you can get straight to it.

📄 Download the AMSA Simplified SMS Toolkit — Class 4 (Hire and Drive) (PDF)

Reproduced in full from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. © Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Sea Raider is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, AMSA. Always check amsa.gov.au for the current version.

Already own a Sea Raider? The exemptions you can apply for

This section is for owners of our boats. If you bought a Sea Raider as a recreational vessel and now want to put it to work, commercial use is not automatically closed off to you. AMSA runs two exemption schemes that allow some vessels to be worked commercially without a full certificate of survey, and most of our range sits inside the twelve-metre limit those schemes use.

Be clear on what this is, and what it is not. These are AMSA schemes. We do not administer them, we do not assess eligibility, and we cannot put a finished boat into survey — ours or anyone else’s. What we can do, for a boat we built, is give you the detail your surveyor will ask for: hull and plate specification, scantlings, capacities, engine rating, fuel and tankage, and the figures from your Australian Builders Plate. Having accurate build information from the builder makes the surveyor’s job easier and cheaper. The application itself is between you, an accredited marine surveyor and AMSA.

Which scheme fits, if either, depends on the length of your boat, where you intend to operate it, and what you intend to carry.

And be aware of what an exemption actually does: it exempts a vessel from needing a full certificate of survey. It is not a shortcut into full survey. AMSA is explicit that an exemption does not automatically permit a recreational vessel to operate commercially — the vessel still has to meet the design and equipment standards for its category, and be assessed.

Exemption 40 — Class C restricted operations

The most likely route for a Sea Raider, because it covers vessels under 12 metres — which is every model in our range bar the yacht. Hire and drive (Class 4) is not covered — see Class 4 above.

• Vessels under 12 metres
• Class 2 (non-passenger) or Class 3 (fishing) only
• Operating in restricted C, D and E waters
• No passengers, except Class 2 vessels in D and E waters, which may carry up to 4 day passengers
• Maximum persons on board varies by area: 12 in D or E waters; 12 within 5 nautical miles of a shore base; 6 within 15 nautical miles; 3 elsewhere in restricted C
• Requires an initial survey by an accredited marine surveyor, then inspection in and out of the water every five years
• This is not a full survey. What gets inspected is at the surveyor’s discretion, provided they are satisfied the vessel is fit for its intended use and meets the exemption’s requirements
• Apply using AMSA form 523. An updated version of the exemption took effect 1 July 2025

Exemption 2 — certificate of survey exemption

Nine categories of vessel may operate commercially with no certificate of survey at all. The categories most likely to be relevant to a Sea Raider owner:

• Class 2, 3 or 4 vessels under 12 metres, in sheltered waters only — Class 2 may carry up to 4 day passengers, Class 3 none, and a Class 4 hire and drive vessel must not be operated overnight
• Sporting and recreational vessels affiliated with an approved body, within 15 nautical miles of the baseline
• Volunteer marine search and rescue vessels, Class 2D or 2E under 12 metres
• Fire service vessels, Class 2D or 2E under 12 metres
• Training vessels under 24 metres used by sailing schools, within 15 nautical miles of the baseline
• Tenders up to 7.5 metres carrying goods or up to 12 people, operating within line of sight of a parent vessel

All vessels under this exemption must comply with the National Standard for Commercial Vessels Part G, and cannot carry dangerous goods except in limited cases. Class 2, 3 and 4 vessels cannot use inboard petrol engines below deck, or operate primarily for towage.

Moving from an exemption into full survey later

An exemption is not necessarily the end of the line. A vessel that has been operating under an exemption, and so has never held a certificate of survey, can later be issued one for the first time. When that happens AMSA classes it as a transitional vessel and applies transitional standards to it, rather than the full standards that apply to a brand new build.

Do not plan a business around it without advice, and do not assume it on the strength of anything on this page. It depends heavily on how the vessel was built, what can be demonstrated to a surveyor after the fact, and what it will be used for. Talk to an accredited marine surveyor early if this is the direction you are heading.

Every Sea Raider comes with an Australian Builders Plate

Every boat we build is delivered with an Australian Builders Plate — the compliance plate fitted to recreational vessels — so you already have one, and you do not have to go looking for it or have one reconstructed after the fact.

That matters here because AMSA accepts the plate as supporting evidence in Exemption 2 applications and Exemption 40 inspections. It confirms the maximum power rating, number of persons, load capacity and the associated stability criteria — exactly the figures a surveyor will ask for first. Owners of boats without a plate, or with an illegible one, often have to pay a surveyor to establish those numbers from scratch.

Treat it as supporting information only: it is not evidence of full compliance with commercial vessel construction standards.

Before you count on it

Eligibility turns on your specific vessel and how you intend to use it, and the operational area determinations differ by state and by vessel length. Speak to AMSA on 1800 627 484, or to an accredited marine surveyor, before you commit to a purchase or a job on the strength of an exemption.

If you know from the outset that the vessel will be worked commercially, a new build to full survey remains the cleanest path, and gives you the widest operating envelope. Talk to us at enquiry stage and we will price it.

If you want peace of mind on a new build

You do not need a survey to be confident in a new boat. If you would like the reassurance anyway, here is what is available.

• Your Australian Builders Plate. Fitted to every boat we build, confirming power rating, persons, load capacity and the associated stability criteria.
• Bring your own surveyor to handover. You are welcome to engage an independent marine surveyor to attend handover with you and inspect the vessel. We will accommodate it.
• Our joint handover inspection. Every vessel is inspected at handover and the result recorded on a checklist signed by both parties, so anything outstanding is documented on the day.
• Our warranty. Five years structural hull cover on the hull, welding, stringers and transom. See our warranty page for the full terms.
• Your insurer. Insurers rarely ask for a survey on a brand new vessel; most will insure on the invoice and build specification. Worth a quick call to confirm before you arrange anything.

Not sure which applies to you?

Tell us how you plan to use the boat and we will tell you straight whether survey comes into it. If it does, we will say so. Call 07 3477 9338 or email [email protected].

This page is general information about how vessel survey and exemptions work in Australia. It is not legal advice, and requirements change — AMSA consulted on changes to Marine Order 503 in 2026 which may alter some of the detail above. Requirements depend on how a vessel is used and where it operates — confirm your obligations with AMSA or your state maritime authority. Current as at August 2026.