6Determining who is in charge of vessel

6 Determining who is in charge of vessel

(1)  For the purposes of this Act, a person is taken to be in charge of a vessel at a particular time if, at that time –

(a) he or she is the only person, or the only adult, aboard the vessel; or

(b) he or she purports by word or deed, and without contradiction by any other person aboard, to be in charge of the vessel; or

(c) the other persons aboard the vessel or a majority of them acknowledge, by word or deed, that the person is in charge of the vessel; or

(d) of all the persons aboard the vessel, he or she has ultimate command of the vessel's movements.

(2)  Subsection (1)(d) has effect regardless of whether, at the particular time –

(a) the vessel is underway; or

(b) the person is actually commanding the vessel's movements.

(3)  If it is established in any proceedings that, at a particular time, a person was the owner of a vessel and was –

(a) aboard the vessel; and

(b) qualified by a mariners certificate to be in charge of or otherwise operate the vessel –

it is to be presumed, unless the person on the balance of probabilities establishes otherwise, that he or she had ultimate command of the vessel's movements at that time.