As we have mentioned in previous newsletters, from 1.1.2023 we will end our offer of selfskippered boat rental here at Lauklines. We have found ourselves forced to do this for safety reasons related to the current liability rules with risk assessment of the fishing and sea areas, our boat rental guests want to operate in.
We will therefore only be offering new boats with skipper/ guide in the future. This also means, we further strengthen our existing offer of private fishing and adventure trips with skipper in collaboration with Explore the Arctic As.
This reorganization has been in our plans for a few years, but due to Covid-19, the decision has been postponed since many guests had to move their booked stays from 2020 and 2021 until 2022.
The background is our experience that too many guests who come do not have sufficient practical experience with handling boats in the open arctic sea, under the challenging currents and tidal conditions and very quick weather changes we have here in northern Norway. There is of course a strong desire among most guests to get out to the rich fish banks here outside Kvaløya. For this reason, we experience that it is difficult to assess the qualifications of the guests in advance, even though we have requirements that they must have experience and a recreational boat certificate.
Unfortunately, there are not any practical requirements associated with the recreational boat certificates, so many have only been able to complete a test on the internet to obtain a certificate. We have therefore had to set our own requirements / assessments for our guests to maintain a certain level of security. Here we see that it has been difficult to maintain and stick to our own requirements when some guests have a higher assessment of their own experience than what we believe is sufficient. For several we have had to demand that they show us practically that they have experience and then it has been difficult to refuse when we see that it is not sufficient. Several guests have experience with boats, but very few have practical experience of handling boats under such rapidly changing weather conditions that can suddenly occur here in our areas in Northern Norway. Therefore, considering all the accidents and not least all “almost accidents” which are not written about officially, that occur annually with tourist fishermens in Norway, we see ourselves having to change to only offer boats with skipper before a possible accident should affect some of our own guests.
We are grateful that the Norwegian Maritime Authority are increasing focus on safety and stricter requirements for boat rental companies with a view to take risk assessment depending on which areas the guests are fishing in. At the same time, we find it regrettable that no corresponding stricter rules are set for boat drivers, but put us as boat rental company in the challenging situations of having to assess experience / knowledge ourself, rather than having a sufficient certificate from the guests. We therefore do not see it as advisable to continue as we know what risk we are exposing our boat rental guests to when we want to give them a quality experience.
We could have chosen to continue with boat rental and limitedc area to only be fishing in the fjord areas, but we know that this would be a mockery of many of the guests. Instead, we choose to facilitate an even more professional and quality improvement of the deep-sea fishing experience.
For safety reasons, the new boats will be larger than our existing rental boats and they will vary from 24-32 feet. Here, everything from safety equipment such as Epirb, life raft, VHF etc. becomes standard equipment, and we are sure that everyone will find something that suits their group size and needs. Explore the Arctic AS has many years of experience in operating such approved boats with a guide / skipper and they will have a crew available according to various preferred wishes. Whether you want a proper week with full days deep-sea fishing in the open sea on the rich fish banks or shorter trips outside or even just fishing in the fjord for some hours.
Some have asked if we can offer individual bookings and put together groups, but we have bad experience with this from previous years, as it quickly becomes dissatisfied with different wishes and needs, instead if all is a part of a private group. You will find more details on our website here regarding the concept, boat models and prices. The final setup of all different boat models that will be available for the 2023 season will be published during this summer. Regardless of boat types, we have already created a price system where the price is according to the number of people and not the type of boat.
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