Help with Establishing Boat Ownership!!

[KatMarine]

I am a US Citizen buying a boat in Grenada.

It is British Owned and Flagged.

Because I'm not British, I guess I will have to Reflag AND show New Ownership.

How do I do this??

Do I just pay sales tax in Grenada and register with USCG?

I plan to keep sailing around the world and only stop off in US ports on vacation.

[Sawbonz]

I’d hire a lawyer. The one I’m using is Catherine a Kent, *(561) 833-2261‬.

[belizesailor]

...or a documentation service. They handle this sort of thing all the time so likely more knowledgeable in this subject area than most attornies and cheaper too.

[RaymondR]

The first thing to do is see if you can download the regulations and read them, the British have a small ships register (well they used to anyway) so you need to find out which register it is registered under and get the appropriate document. I am finding that professional help is not quiet as "professional" as it was once and it does not hurt to have a little prior knowledge before engaging with them. Also, a phone call to registry staff may not hurt as they can be surprisingly helpful at times.

[BM2023]

Presuming it is a Part I registration, as a US citizen you can maintain the British registration. You will however have to :

- appoint a UK citizen residing in the UK or a UK based company as your representative

OR

- register a Ltd company in the UK and register the vessel under the company name.

If it is a Part III Small Ships Register (SSR), then you will have to register it else ware as this type of registration requires that you live at least 185 days a year in the UK.

[masonc]

Originally Posted by KatMarine

I am a US Citizen buying a boat in Grenada.

It is British Owned and Flagged.

Because I'm not British, I guess I will have to Reflag AND show New Ownership.

How do I do this??

Do I just pay sales tax in Grenada and register with USCG?

I plan to keep sailing around the world and only stop off in US ports on vacation.

You should be able to register in Anguilla which is a British Ships register, using a company registered here. There's no sales tax here. I can give you a contact who can set it up for you.

[valhalla360]

Require the seller to provide documentation from the UK ships registry that it has been removed and a NOTARIZED copy of the USCG bill of sale form (it's online). Then contact the UK ships registry and confirm.

Then fill out the paperwork and send it in. If you are going to be cruising immediately, you can request the expedited processing...otherwise, it literally takes months.

Read the forms and get them right or the USCG will kick it back but really nothing other than filling things out correctly.

[14murs14]

I did this with a French flagged cat which I reflagged as U.S. with Coast Guard registration.

First, although I'm a retired Coast Guard officer and can wade through bureaucracy better than most, I hired a vessel documentation service (Kimberly Clark at ASAP in Miami, 954-926-2387) and highly recommend it. The fee was ridiculously low for the amount of work she did and the hassle and time she saved me, plus there are a number of tricks of the trade that these folks know that you can't find published anywhere that might be of use if you're in a certain situations.

Second, in my situation it was vital that the old owner deflagged the vessel in France. There was no way for me to do this as the new owner and I couldn't register the vessel in the U.S. without it.

Finally, the whole deflag/bill of sale/registration issue is generally going to require a trusted third party to act as escrow unless you know the seller well and you trust each other implicitly, which the vessel doc folks or a broker can do. Otherwise one of you is taking a risk and don't have any leverage to get the other party to hold up their part of the deal.

In general, this isn't worth doing as a DIY project, the hassle is too high and the price of hiring a professional are too low to justify it in my experience.