To add a little more perspective to the New Zealand position with regard to CAT 1. From New Zealand the nearest adjacent country is about 1,000 miles across some often rough seas. In England it is 21 miles across the Dover straits. It takes a very different level of equipment and experience to go foreign from New Zealand than it does from England. Most countries in Europe the Baltic, The Mediterranean and the Caribbean are within a few miles of adjacent countries and can be accessed by trips that are little more than a day sail. New Zealand has brought in CAT 1 to try to stop the idiots who want to embark on a 1,000 mile offshore journey with inadequate experience and equipment. Unfortunately this creates the situation where those with the experience and knowledge are forced to comply with the expensive and at least partially, heavy handed and bureaucratic CAT 1 requirements. As usual the idiots spoil it for the rest of us.

David Thatcher wrote:If you are prepared to look past the whole thing about 'I am told I must have'

That's the whole point, David. I'm not prepared to look past the compulsion.  The real point is that I don't care whether the gear is good or bad, useful or a damn nuisance: my fundamental objection is that someone insists that I put certain pieces of equipment on my boat regardless of my opinion.  And, I repeat, I don't wish to communicate with other people at sea - by radio or by telephone.


Would you like someone to come into your home, examine your preparations in case of earthquake; walk around the house telling you to move this, rehang that, alter the other because in their opinion it could constitute a hazard; ask you daughter to recite what she needs to do in an earthquake; go through your supplies and tell you that you have too much of this and insufficient of that?  Well, you are very safety conscious, perhaps you would, but I know I wouldn't and nor would most people.  To me, the Cat 1 requirement is the same thing.  I believe that I have considered what I'm doing and prepared myself adequately.  I dare say most people in NZ think the same about their earthquake preparations, if they've thought about them at all. 

I checked the price of the Part B New Zealand registration. It has gone up from $500 odd dollars in 2013 to $1100 now. I think that is very unreasonable. How can there be $1100 of paperwork involved?! But for sailing offshore a boat needs to have registration, so it might still be the best option for us living in NZ. A friend registered his yacht with a certain yacht club in Germany which gives German registration. I no longer have the details but it worked for him. Oddly enough he still took most of the safety equipment including a Sat-phone on a purely voluntary basis. He did not take a life raft because his boat was a multihull and reasonably unsinkable. When I cruised offshore on my Searunner trimaran I took a life boat rather than a raft, and that had Cat 1 approval.

How is the boat coming on?

Your friend, taking most of the 'safety' equipment simply goes to back up my argument: it's not whether or not you want the stuff, it's being told that you have to take it that grates.  The confiscating of your responsibility and autonomy: the antithesis of what long-distance sailing is supposed to be about.  But your final paragraph also shows up how ludicrous Cat 1 is: "He did not take a life raft because his boat was a multihull and reasonably unsinkable", you say.  And obviously this was accepted.  What about if he had a fire on board?

I rest my case m'lud.

The boat moves slowly due to the amount of head scratching about the saloon/galley details that has been going on. I  think I've worked out most of my solutions, now, but I've been spending a fair bit of time running round looking at stuff and waving a tape measure around.  I've also been painting and varnishing.  I'll do an update on Sunday.

Anonymous wrote:

Well argued, Annie. 

The UK must be one of the few countries left where registration, and equipment carried, are entirely at the owner's discretion. The RNLI will advise on "rescue" and "safety" equipment that they think a boat ought to carry, but that's all it is - advice. Not a heavy handed Nanny State that thinks it knows best. 

We need registration, not for our own country's uses, but for other countries, when we visit, to be able to see a document that establishes the boat's nationality, as they need to see a passport to establish our own. That's all, and it was worth £25 over five years for me to get an SSR number for Weaverbird, so that I can visit the Republic of Ireland, should I wish to do so. It wouldn't be worth more.

I've looked into several of the foreign flag options.  The problem with UK SSR is that even if you are a UK National or EU passport holder (Brexit notwithstanding) is that you have to lived for 180 days per year at the UK address you domicile on your SSR application when you attempt to register your boat initially.  That counts me out. Probably counts the likes of Annie out too as she has been too long out of the country...though there might be sneaky ways around it like using a family member's name and address.

Guernsey is better but more expensive.  You need a Tonnage survey, and three Bills of Sale going back a couple owners previous to the person you bought the boat off, although in Annies case a new build would get around that.
You then get 10 years and and get to fly the Red ensign or the Guernsey flag itself if you wish, and only a small renewal fee to boot. THe initial fee though works out about the same as NZ when you factor in the cost of the Tonnage survey.  For me, as I could not supply the most recent bill of sale,, let alone the two previous, they could not register my boat and turned me down.

I'm currently investigating Malaysian flag, but I still need the current bill of sale, which I don't have.  I might be able to track down the previous owner and get him to fill one out.  It's something I didn't think about when I bought the boat. I just shook his hand and put the money in his Bank account...a very Kiwi way of doing things.

If I end up registering with NZ, then ship my boat overseas then the NZ Cat 1 does not apply.  There is no law to stop me registering here in NZ and starting a voyage from overseas by the way.  But if I am sailing from NZ, under a NZ boat reg, then there is absolutely no way around Cat 1.

My fundamental objection to "Cat 1" is, as David W says, that it's all about rescue: it's not about safety.  I don't want to be rescued and I don't want the Government to assume that I do. 

The filter I would choose, assuming that evolution in action is considered unacceptable, is that if you have a radio you carry full insurance.  If you don't you - literally - sink or swim according to your capacity to learn in a hurry. 

And I don't want a life raft.  If my big boat has sunk, I'm damn sure it's not going to be much fun in a little one.  Moreover, the kindest and most broad minded of inspectors is not going to pass my 5ft dinghy as a life raft.  And I don't want to convert a boat into one and then have something that is to heavy for me to carry up the beach on my own.

I used to have third party insurance, but now it's almost as much as full insurance.  So I've built a light, small boat that, handled with care, can't really do too much damage.

I should like to do as i did when I was 20, hoist my country's ensign on the back of my totally unsuitable boat, and sail off on an adventure.  But I can't, because the authorities in this country control my sailing offshore far more carefully than they control me on the road, where someone dies just about every day.

I don't want to talk to people ashore when I'm at sea and I don't want them to talk to me.  What's the point of being alone on the ocean if you still have an umbilical attaching you to the land? 

I don't want to burden my boat with man overboard equipment when I sail single-handed.

I don't want anyone else telling me how I should fit out my boat.  Sailing is one of the last truly free adventures on the planet.  Or should be.  What difference does it make to Kiwi bureaucrats if I sail off and don't arrive anywhere?  They should be happy that they won't have to pay my pension or end-of-life medical bills.

This is my thread: these are my thoughts.  I don't expect people to agree with me in the 21st century, but I do expect to be allowed to live my own life the way I want to, as long as it's not adversely affecting other people.

Just a question from an ignorant:

Can you have the boat un-registered, and in case of yes, what waters can one use it in?

Arne