Naples Boat Charter Group Limits: 6-Pack vs 7–13 Guests

The photograph is a Coast Guard response boat assigned to Station Oregon Inlet, North Carolina. SN Ross Comstock, U.S. Coast Guard, public domain. It is not a Naples charter. It is here because the limit on your group is a Coast Guard certificate, not a brochure photo of a bigger boat.

Three different ways to put 8 people on the water

Naples boats that take paying guests fall into a few legal boxes. The one that surprises families is the "6-pack." An operator of uninspected passenger vessels, the OUPV license people call a 6-pack, may carry up to six passengers for hire. The captain is licensed. The boat is not an inspected cruise ship. Six means six. A baby counts. A last-minute cousin counts. The seventh person is a second boat or a different class of vessel.

An inspected vessel carries a Certificate of Inspection. The COI states how many passengers that hull may carry, with the crew the certificate assumes. That is how a catamaran or a dinner yacht can take a group that does not fit a center console. On the October 2026 materials used for this guide, Miss Naples publishes capacity up to 48 on the 47-foot catamaran, Pure Florida names M/V Double Sunshine and M/V Sea Flight for its cruise and private work, and Naples Princess publishes a large inspected yacht with capacity up to 149. Those numbers are the operators' published caps. The certificate posted on the boat the day you board is the one that counts. If the quote says 149 and the COI in the wheelhouse says something else, the COI wins.

A bareboat is the third box. You are not buying a ride with a captain who works for the owner. You are chartering the boat itself, and someone in your group is the operator. The Coast Guard's small-passenger rules in 46 CFR Part 175 are about when a vessel is a small passenger vessel. A true bareboat, where the charterer has possession and is not a passenger for hire, is a different agreement from a "bareboat" ad that still sends the owner's captain. If the company provides the captain, assume you are in the passenger-for-hire box until they show you otherwise. This page is not legal advice. Credential questions start at the National Maritime Center.

What the Naples rate cards actually cap

Gulf Breeze keeps the private boats and even the shared sunset at six guests. A group of seven to twelve on that product is two boats, and the second boat is on request. That is written on the rentals and cruises page from the operator's own card. Naples Boat Charters' eco and shelling charter is up to six. Rising Tide's private 3-hour boat is $575 for up to six, with a flagship note of up to eleven on the reserve page. Eleven is not a 6-pack. Ask which hull, and ask to see why that hull may carry eleven.

Dalis runs a 46-foot party boat with a per-person fare and 34-foot private boats capped at six. The party boat is the shared seat. The 34-foot is the private. A&B Charters' offshore card used on the fishing charter page is up to six anglers. Do not add a seventh because the cockpit looks roomy.

Miss Naples at up to 48 and Naples Princess at up to 149 are the boats you call when the group is a rehearsal dinner or a sunset that will not split. Pure Florida's private eco-shelling on Sea Flight is priced at $800 for up to six, and the private sightseeing or sunset block at $635 for up to six, on the October 2026 check. Those private blocks are still a small number. The big number is the inspected cruise, not the private fishing hull.

How to write the quote so the cap is real

Say the headcount in the first sentence, including children. Say whether you will split across two boats. Two 6-packs cost about twice one 6-pack, and they do not stay glued together in a pass. If the day only works if everyone is on one deck for a toast, you want the COI boat, not two consoles.

Ask for the boat's name, the passenger cap, and whether a mate is required above a certain number. Ask what happens if one person cancels and you drop from seven to six. Sometimes that lets you move to a cheaper hull. Sometimes the inspected boat has a minimum. Get it in writing.

A rental you drive is not a way around the six-passenger rule for a paid charter. It is a different product with its own age and education rules, on the boater ID page. Port O'Call's rentals seat 8 on the deck boat and 12 on the tritoon, at the same hourly rate, and one renter age 26 or older signs. Those boats are not permitted in the Gulf. You have not hired a captain. You are the operator. If something happens, the 6-pack conversation does not apply, because you were not a passenger on a licensed charter. You were the driver.

Sunset groups hit this limit constantly. A shared Gulf Breeze sunset is $100 a person and still maxes at six. Seven people is two boats or a Princess, Miss Naples, Sweet Liberty, or Pure Florida shared cruise with a higher cap. The prices are on the sunset page. Keewaydin shuttle boats are larger than a 6-pack because they are inspected or certificated for that route. Hemingway's shuttle holds 34 and leaves Rose Marina, not Naples City Dock. That is a drop on an island, not a private charter. The anchoring map is where they put you.

If a website says "up to 13" and will not name the COI or the second boat, do not send the deposit. Match the name on the quote to the name on the registration. The fishing charter page and the private boat page are the rate cards. This page is only the headcount.