Buying a boat as a Spainsh redident-what flag?

[Philip1972]

Hello everyone, and thank you for letting me join!
I am moving to Spain this year (from France where I am a resident) and will be a Spanish resident. I am British by birth with a British passport.

I will be buying a used motor boat once there, probably around 30 foot and approx 50k euro.
My question is, should I buy a Spanish registered and flagged boat, or should I buy a non Spanish boat? Having read various articles on here it seems a confusing situation. Its just for recreational purposes but even though I am having Spanish lessons there is no way I can do a written exam in Spanish to get relevant licences!
And I would also like to not have pay 12% import tax either. It seems that if I buy a non Spanish boat I might not even need to have licences, is that true?

Any advice received will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[billskip]

Hello everyone, and thank you for letting me join!
I am moving to Spain this year (from France where I am a resident) and will be a Spanish resident. I am British by birth with a British passport.

I will be buying a used motor boat once there, probably around 30 foot and approx 50k euro.
My question is, should I buy a Spanish registered and flagged boat, or should I buy a non Spanish boat? Having read various articles on here it seems a confusing situation. Its just for recreational purposes but even though I am having Spanish lessons there is no way I can do a written exam in Spanish to get relevant licences!
And I would also like to not have pay 12% import tax either. It seems that if I buy a non Spanish boat I might not even need to have licences, is that true?

Any advice received will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Welcome

AFAIK if you are a Spanish resident then you (and I think the boat ) has to comply with Spanish regulations, no matter what flag.
For example, me being Spanish resident were to use a UK friends/relative boat, the boat would automatically be regarded as
necessary to be compliant with Spanish regulations.
I did hear that (it could be nonsense) you could exchange your rya tickets for Spanish. But if you're resident you will need Spanish license to skipper a boat.

 

[Philip1972]

Thank you for the reply!
What you say makes sense, but I have also read that Spain does accept RYA tickets again now! So its all a bit confusing and proving very difficult to get proper, concise info!

 

[Grubble]

Many people have registered their boats in Spain under the Polish flag - this includes Spanish residents and non-residents. This is cheaper and easier than a Spanish registration and is probably the best option if you don't want to get a Spanish flagged boat.

The license you need as a Spanish resident is going to be more tricky. As I understand it (and I would be delighted to be proved wrong) as a Spanish resident RYA certificates are not valid (they are fine for tourists etc), but are no good for residents.

The Spanish license you can get depends on the length of the boat, the simplest is for boats under 6m and you can get it in a day with very little or no Spanish needed. The others are going to be challenging, even if you speak Spanish:-

Licencia de Navegacion up to 6 metre boat
PNB up to 8 metre boat
PER up to 15 metre boat

As I said, I would be very happy if anyone knows differently to the above.

 

[billskip]

The Spanish license you can get depends on the length of the boat

And engine size I believe.
Cpt Sensible of this parish will know, I think.
I have heard you can get your Spanish ticket with English courses, I think
Cpt Sensible best to confirm...

 

[Philip1972]

Great info, thank you!
I am looking at around 10-11m in length.
I await Cpt Sensible's arrival!

 

[Ray Purchase]

Many people have registered their boats in Spain under the Polish flag - this includes Spanish residents and non-residents. This is cheaper and easier than a Spanish registration and is probably the best option if you don't want to get a Spanish flagged boat.

The license you need as a Spanish resident is going to be more tricky. As I understand it (and I would be delighted to be proved wrong) as a Spanish resident RYA certificates are not valid (they are fine for tourists etc), but are no good for residents.

The Spanish license you can get depends on the length of the boat, the simplest is for boats under 6m and you can get it in a day with very little or no Spanish needed. The others are going to be challenging, even if you speak Spanish:-

Licencia de Navegacion up to 6 metre boat
PNB up to 8 metre boat
PER up to 15 metre boat

As I said, I would be very happy if anyone knows differently to the above.

That's how I understand it, your Spanish needs to be good as the exams are all in Spanish.

 

[Grubble]

And engine size I believe.
Cpt Sensible of this parish will know, I think.
I have heard you can get your Spanish ticket with English courses, I think
Cpt Sensible best to confirm...

The only limit on engine size is for boats under 5m which don't need a licence if the engine is under 15hp. Anything else you need a licence and then there are no engine size limits, just max length of the boat and how far you can go in it. In practical terms getting the 6m license is almost as easy as not having a licence, so there is no real reason to limit yourself to such a small engine.

I'm sure you can do a course with an English speaking teacher, but the theory exams (for the 8m and up licenses) are in Spanish and you have to know your estribor from your babor and your virar from your trasluchar. Spanish officialdom do like talking posh, so learning all the vocabulary you will never use and recognising lights you will never see is part of the requirements to pass the exam. Easy enough for a youngster, not so easy for an oldster. Again I would be delighted if Cpt Sensible knows different.

 

[wallacebob]

All of the above is true. I’m not a resident, but got a letter stamped by local port capitan that set out my RYA & ICC qualifications in Spanish. That made interaction with Guardia simple. Show passport, show letter and documents, all happy. Getting the smallest licence is easy, lots of schools do it, it’s the larger ones that are difficult for non Spanish speakers. I have heard of UK flagged boats with residents just showing RYA docs, UK passport & forgetting the TIE, therefore appearing to be non-resident. Most Guardia will be content. Depends what/where your sailing will be.

 

[Philip1972]

Interesting indeed. My boating will limited to pottering round the local coves and eating lunch while bobbing around!

Thank you to all who have helped.