Check remaining vessel age before negotiating a used fishing boat
Two boats offered at the same price can have very different remaining periods under Korean fishing-boat business requirements.
The launch date and hull material matter; buying the vessel or replacing its engine does not restart its age.
Compare up to three candidates by their age-limit reference date, remaining period and purchase price per remaining year.
This calculator is for people considering a used coastal fishing vessel for a Korean fishing-boat business.
It helps identify documentary gaps before paying a deposit, confusing the captain with safety personnel, or insuring fewer people than the certificate requires.
It uses Korean rules checked on November 3, 2026, and does not apply foreign charter-boat rules.
Later amendments and local operating-area or hour restrictions require a fresh check before reporting.
What to do with the result
Request the inspection certificate, launch evidence and fishing permit from the seller.
Ask the competent authority to confirm experience and the insurer to confirm coverage.
A satisfied pre-check does not guarantee acceptance of a report, operating rights, seaworthiness or future income.
Vessel age starts on the launch date
Article 2(7) of the Fishing Vessels Act Enforcement Rule defines vessel age by the period elapsed since launch.
Use the documented launch date, rather than the purchase date, policy start, latest inspection or engine replacement.
If the exact date is unknown, leave it blank and consult the authority or inspection body.
An unknown launch date or an unlisted hull material withholds the age reference and annualized purchase cost.
Wooden vessels
Article 16(1)(2) of the Enforcement Decree specifies an age of 20 years or less.
The calculator adds 20 years to launch to show an age-limit reference date.
Steel, FRP and aluminium
The same provision specifies 25 years or less for steel, synthetic-resin and aluminium vessels.
FRP is the synthetic-resin input option.
Confirm the certificate’s actual material classification.
The anniversary itself is marked for boundary review because date-only inputs cannot settle the exact starting and ending time behind the inclusive wording.
The next day is treated as exceeding the entered age limit.
A February 29 launch is adjusted to the end of February when the reference year has no matching date.
Confirm the legal boundary with the authority; this reference is not a guaranteed operating expiry date.
Age is only one reporting requirement
Article 25 of the Fishing Management and Promotion Act and Article 16 of its Enforcement Decree require the relevant vessel type, gross tonnage, propulsion, age, equipment, inspection, captain qualifications and first-report education together.
Gross tonnage must be below 10: exactly 10 does not meet that condition.
A valid fishing permit and a powered fishing vessel are separate requirements.
An appearance suitable for carrying anglers does not establish eligibility.
- Vessel: valid fishing permit, gross tonnage below 10, propulsion, listed material and age, and Annex 4 equipment.
- Inspection: safety inspection or a lawfully applicable omission based on inspection under the Fishing Vessels Act.
- People: small-vessel operator or higher license, recognized experience, first-report professional education and clearance of any closure restriction.
- Operating preparation: separate crew and passenger capacities, required safety personnel and the vessel’s insurance or mutual-aid coverage.
Act Article 25-2 generally requires an annual safety inspection but permits omission when the applicable Fishing Vessels Act inspection has been completed.
Select confirmation only when the actual inspection or lawful omission has been verified.
Recurring training and inspection duties are not completed forever by making a first report.
The captain needs both a license and recognized experience
License AND experience; two alternative experience routes
The captain needs a small-vessel operator license or a higher-grade maritime officer license.
Experience requires at least two years of recognized service OR at least 120 recognized departure / arrival record days.
The form compares 24 months with 120 days.
It does not add two incomplete routes together to create eligibility.
MOLEG interpretations 26-0689 and 26-0671, dated October 21, 2026 (IDs 344123 and 344125), explain that experience is not confined to ship-officer duties or service after obtaining a license.
Those interpretations leave passenger-trip recognition and the method for counting 120 days outside their scope.
Enter authority-recognized evidence, rather than converting trip counts directly into days or assuming passenger bookings qualify.
Enable conditional experience dates only to model continuous future service or one recognized record day every day after the review date.
With 23 months and 119 days, the two shortfalls are one month and one day.
The resulting dates do not incorporate actual work schedules, rest days, recognition decisions, licensing or education and are not approval dates.
How the purchase-price comparison works
Comparison formulas
Remaining days = age-limit reference date − review date.
Remaining years = remaining days / 365.2425.
Price per remaining year = entered purchase price / remaining years.
The result is rounded to the nearest KRW; zero remaining days withholds division.
This simply allocates the purchase cost over a reference period.
It excludes income, fuel, wages, repairs, insurance premiums, loan interest, depreciation and resale value.
A lower annualized price may still be unattractive if permits, inspections, machinery or coverage present problems.
Use the same review date and price basis across candidates.
Until documents are verified, treat the displayed date as an assumption; the annualized price remains withheld.
Worked example: two boats launched on June 1, 2008
Assume a November 3, 2026 review, verified certificates and an entered purchase price of KRW 100 million for each candidate.
Only the material changes in this fictional comparison.
It neither confirms other requirements nor supplies a market price.
Hull material comparison with the same launch date and purchase price| Material | Age-limit reference | Remaining days | Price per remaining year |
|---|
| FRP | 2033-06-01 | 2,402 | KRW 15,205,766 |
| Wood | 2028-06-01 | 576 | KRW 63,410,156 |
The calendar durations are six years, six months and 29 days for FRP and one year, six months and 29 days for wood.
The same purchase price produces substantially different annualized burdens.
Use the comparison to verify launch and material with the seller, then review permit continuity and inspections before negotiating.
Safety personnel use actual people at departure and night operations
Enforcement Rule Article 18-2 combines operation during 20:00–04:00 with at least 13 people aboard when departure is reported.
The actual total includes the captain, other crew and passengers.
Exceptions concern guiding passengers only to a fishing site and operations strictly inside two nautical miles of the statutory mainland or island coastline.
11 passengers + 2 crew = 13 actual people
Night operations without either exception require safety personnel in this example.
An actual total of 12 does not meet the personnel-count condition.
Unknown area or operating mode can keep the determination pending.
Exactly two nautical miles is not automatically classified as inside; obtain an authority boundary check.
Required safety personnel must be a crew member other than the captain and meet a prescribed rescue-qualification or training route under the rule.
The captain cannot be counted as the separate safety person.
Adding personnel must also respect the certified crew capacity.
Arrange both a qualified person and sufficient crew capacity when the requirement applies.
Insurance uses certificate capacity rather than today’s bookings
Enforcement Decree Article 22 requires insurance or mutual aid covering the maximum people shown on the fishing-vessel inspection certificate.
A maximum of two crew and 18 passengers normally means comparing coverage for 20 people, even if only 12 people depart today.
Crew and passengers are entered separately because both their counts and protection requirements differ.
The family-crew exception concerns specified working relatives
Under Article 2(1)(3) of the Fishing Crew and Fishing Vessel Accident Compensation Insurance Act, qualifying family crew include the owner’s spouse, including a de facto spouse, and direct ascendants or descendants working on that vessel.
Insurance or mutual-aid enrollment may be omitted for those qualifying family crew.
Confirm the exclusion with the insurer and subtract it only from maximum crew, not passenger capacity.
It is not a general exemption for all relatives, friends or accompanying family passengers.
If one of two maximum crew is lawfully excluded, the comparison is 18 passengers + 1 crew = 19 people.
Passenger death coverage is compared against the KRW 150 million per-person benchmark in Article 3(1) of the Automobile Liability Security Act Enforcement Decree.
KRW 20 million is the floor where death damages are low; it is not the required policy limit.
Injury and residual-disability coverage require the relevant Annex 1 and Annex 2 standards, and crew need protection for qualifying crew disasters.
A sufficient death limit alone does not establish complete insurance compliance.
Keep the policy term, report period and age period separate
Act Article 25(3) ties report validity to the insurance or mutual-aid contract period, subject to a three-year maximum.
A one-year policy does not automatically produce a three-year report, and a five-year policy does not guarantee five-year report validity.
The calculator shows the earlier of policy end and policy start plus three years as a reporting-period cap reference.
The actual reporting certificate controls.
A review date before the policy starts or after it ends fails the active-period check.
The comparison uses dates only; confirm exact coverage times in the certificate.
Renewal references repeat the same contract-day span and show up to ten dates before the age reference.
Leap years can shift these hypothetical dates.
They do not mean renewal on the same terms is available or that the business report automatically continues; further assessment may be necessary.
Verify Annex 4 equipment with the inspection body
The form records verified Annex 4 compliance rather than automatically calculating equipment quantities.
The actual vessel needs review of lifesaving equipment, communication, firefighting and electrical equipment, sanitation and locally specified equipment.
Do not select confirmation based solely on a seller’s statement; inspect supporting documents and equipment condition.
Requirements for liferafts and AIS use maximum capacity of 13 or more, unlike the actual-departure total used for safety personnel.
Before-sunrise and after-sunset equipment conditions also differ from the 20:00–04:00 personnel window.
Passenger cabins and emergency exits require assessment of construction timing and actual structure.
One number cannot establish full equipment suitability.
An inside-area exception does not remove other equipment, capacity or safe-navigation duties.
Consequences of unreported operation or lost requirements
Sanctions require a separate case review
- Unreported fishing-boat business is subject to closure under Act Article 38; Article 53(2)(4) provides up to six months’ imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 5 million.
- For lost reporting requirements or missing insurance, Enforcement Rule Annex 2, item 2(c), specifies baseline suspension of one month, then three months, then closure.
- A person ordered to close cannot report the business again until two years have elapsed from closure.
- Failure to comply with the safety-personnel requirement is subject to an administrative fine of up to KRW 1 million under Act Article 55(2)(3-2).
The additional violation count for a fatal accident in Annex 2 applies to its safety-accident item 5).
It is not automatically added to every age or insurance violation.
Actual sanctions depend on facts, history, mitigation, aggravation and authority assessment.
The calculator does not add sanctions to a purchase price or present a personal fine as certain.
Step-by-step use before committing to a purchase
- Set the purchase or report review date and enter the captain’s license, recognized experience and education as of that date.
- For each candidate enter launch, material, tonnage, permits and inspection evidence. Leave unknown dates blank and evidence unconfirmed.
- Separate certified crew and passenger capacities from actual departure numbers. Enter night operations, area and guide-only status.
- Use the policy certificate for dates, insured counts and coverage. Apply family exclusion only to qualifying working crew.
- Add up to three vessels, compare remaining periods and annualized prices, and save a TXT report or print it for authority and insurer discussions.
Invalid inputs hide results and identify the fields to correct.
Missing dates, other materials and unconfirmed evidence do not become positive findings.
For an older vessel, consider permit continuity, inspection, capacity and real operating costs alongside the price discussion.
Inputs and reports are processed in the browser; the calculator does not submit an insurance application or an administrative report.
Frequently asked questions
Does buying a used vessel reset its age?
No.
Age runs from launch, not from a sale or an engine replacement.
Is the reference date a confirmed operating expiry?
No.
It assumes the entered launch date and unchanged current rules.
Check the anniversary boundary, exact times, other requirements, amendments and authority interpretation.
Does exactly 10 gross tons qualify?
No.
Article 16 requires gross tonnage below 10.
Do 120 trips equal 120 recognized days?
Not necessarily.
Use documentary evidence and the authority’s recognized counting method.
Passenger records are not automatically added.
Can the captain also be the required safety person?
The required person must be crew other than the captain.
Arrange a separately qualified crew member within certified crew capacity.
Can I insure only the passengers booked today?
The comparison uses the certificate’s maximum people.
Fewer bookings do not reduce that basis.
Check only the lawful family-crew exception separately.
Is KRW 20 million of death coverage sufficient?
That amount is a floor for low death damages.
This calculator compares a KRW 150 million per-person limit and separately checks injury, disability and crew protection.
Should I buy the vessel with the lowest annualized price?
That measure allocates purchase price only.
Review income, repairs, premiums, permits, inspection, debt and resale value as well.
Official sources, versions and future checks
The National Law Information OPEN API confirmed the current Fishing Management and Promotion Act MST267435 (effective 2025-06-21), Decree MST270077 (2026-03-26) and Rule MST253369 (2023-08-08).
The evidence also includes Fishing Vessels Rule MST282099 (2025-12-26), Automobile Liability Security Decree MST289683 (2026-09-15), Fishing Crew Insurance Act MST283875 (2026-09-11), and interpretations 26-0689 / 26-0671.
All were checked on 2026-11-03.
Recheck age restrictions, launch evidence, experience recognition and transitional provisions, safety-personnel qualifications, inspection omission, policy terms, insured people, lawful family exclusions and exact coverage times before signing or reporting.
Local operating areas and hours and later amendments are not automatically incorporated.
Take candidate comparisons and documents to the authority
Enter actual candidates before agreeing on a price and resolve pending documentary items first.
Save the comparison and discuss it with the competent city, county or district for the vessel’s port of registration and with the insurer.
Use the verified remaining period and preparation costs to support a concrete purchase decision.
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