Anonymous wrote:

Hello Patrick, 

at first: I am not firm in french legacy-themes.

But I can tell you how this EU wide problem is handled in Austria and so far I know in Germany. I would expect, that there could be the same EU-conform way in France.

The beginning point is the EU-directive 2013/53/EU. In the national laws in GER and AUT this directive was implemented with some EU-conform exceptions, eg. plans before 1950, self building … etc. One of these excemptions says, that a recreation-vessel does not need a CE if it has been put into circulation into the EU before the 15.June 1998.

To confirm this the authorities in Austria want a proof, eg. a (even private) sales-bill, bills from marinas or shipyards, old register-listing and so on with a date before 15.06.1998 and a location in the EU. UK was an EU-member in that time as we remember  ;-).

We had no problem to register our Newbridge-Coromandel in Austria in 2015. Our proof for the excemption was the copy of the bill from the first owner when he sold the boat to our pre-owner in 1997.

Maybe you can do some recherché in this way before you change your residence to Virgin Islands or so ;-). 

I hope that I could show you a practicable solution even for France.

Michael

Thank you Michaël,

From what I understood here (and I may be wrong), if a boat was too old to have a CE certification, then it should undergo a survey in order to have a french flag. No way for me.

I asked an english friend (a good friend :)) to be co-owner of the boat, so that it could be SSR registered. Up to ow this has come up as the best solution.

Time will tell!

Patrick

Anonymous wrote:

Very interesting.

Just to be clear.

You will be able to keep the boat on the British SSR and you will be allowed to keep her in the EU indefinitely? Will you have to pay the vat.? You won't be required to recertify for the RCD?

Thanks

Look, in fact, I'm not 100% sure of anything. The official people I talk to concerning keeping the boat in France, give me 2 options:

1. They get the boat "francized" (francisé), meaning I have to produce documents that I don't have, and have the boat re-certified by a qualified body. Cost-prohibitive for me (over 6000€). Then pay the annual fee, like every other boat in France above 7 meters.
2. They deliver a boat-passport, all I have to do is produce a "letter of pavillon", that means having the boat duly registered in a foreign country (SSR would do), plus length, weight, engine n°. And still pay the annual fee like above. And keep the boat i France.

Regarding tax, I still can't get the info. A person from the tax I eventually managed to get in touch with, was telling me that I should not pay import tax, but then she was to nquire with another collegue to be sure. I have no answer yet.

As I told you, I don't know if things will work out 100% as I hope, I cross fingers for nothing else to come up.

Anonymous wrote:
On the other hand, the British Registry people have been very helpful to each of my enquiries. They agree to re-register the ship under SSR, without any hassle.
That will be my solution, and cheaper / less trouble-generating than the polish flag.
I can keep the boat in France under a foreign non-EU flag, the french will deliver a passport for it, though I will pay the yearly fee just like if it was french registered.
Maybe the end of the tunnel for me...

Because of Brexit all boats built or designed after 1950 imported from the UK into the EU must be recertified to comply with the RCD (recreational craft directive) even if they already were certified. This means you will have to engage a company  known as a notified body to carry out an assessment of the boat. Your boat prior to Brexit was exempted from this as it was placed on the EU market before 1998.

Sorry about the bad news. The RYA in the UK were quoting £500-5000 for a recertification assessment. Plus the expense of any modifications that may need to be made to comply. Just another unintended consequence of Brexit.

Here's a link to the RCD guidelines outlining the extent and exemptions.

https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/30001

I believe the above is correct and I hope this info is of some help to you and others.

Anonymous wrote:

Hi Patric,

Since this boats have been built in years 1967 up to 1973 I doubt you can get the CE conformity certificate. You may consider, as EU resident, to register your boat under the Polish flag, still EU, less formalities and no obligatory  technical inspection or renewals.

I have recently registered my new build by myself boat, as well as helped to register boats for my two Portuguese and one Hungarian sailors. If interested contact me at kris@kmatuszewski.eu . This will take about a months, since the Polish sworn translation  documents is necessary. First you will get the electronic temporary certificate, then the hard plastic copy will be issued.

Hi Patrick, I would suggest a polite written enquiry back to the French maritime authorities asking for a copy of the original legislation that states clearly that a boat of that age and country of origin requires such a certificate. The law may well not apply but the bureaucrat you're dealing with is just ticking the usual boxes. 

I hope they don't also hit you with a big bill for import duty and VAT as well. 

Too late now but I think there is a loop-hole that some people have used where they buy a boat in the UK mainland, bring it to Northern Ireland (UK) and then into Ireland (EU) and then to their home EU country with no red tape.