CE certificate

[Colummcd]

You will excuse if I sound naive and I am not very nautical in the true sense. My boating is confined to taking a 13 ft rowing boat out on a lake when I go fishing and thats the only boating I do. Any way the point in hand is that I am considering importing a 13ft aluminum "Jon" boat from the USA and have suddenly come across the issue of CE marks. The question is simple but I am sure that answer is not ! There is no engine on the boat, no working parts, no mechanical features of any kind and its for my personal use, and at the price of shipping etc I sure as hell won't be selling it in a hurry. Can I bring in a boat without a CE certificate / plate ifs for personal use ? Who or what is the governing authority in the UK on this matter ? What type of money are we talking about to get a CE certificate for this type of boat ?

I apologize if this has been discussed before but al the help and advise would be welcome.

Colum

 

[sailorman]

only a remote prob if ever you want 2 sell
all bollix like all laws passed to prove somerthing is "Being Done" then no follow-up
a bit like British News /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[jwilson]

The governing (enforcing) body for the RCD CE certs is your local Trading Standards officer, who although probably very good at checking greengrocers scales, is almost certainly unaware the RCD legislation even exists...

 

[Paragon]

As someone currently going through this paperwork exercise on an imported American boat, if I were you I would not even consider doing it.

You may find however that the boat you wish to import is exempt in any case but you'll need to do some digging to find out. For a definitive answer, contact CE Proof, they have been most helpful to me and know their subject!

Good luck

 

[DownWest]

Here in France, registration of boats is compulory, unlike UK. If you build your own, you cannot sell it for 5 yrs. Suppost to be a safety thing, actually put in by the big builders to edge out the small guys. This also applies to all EU countrys. In the Uk nobody seems to pay any attention to the rule. Without registration it is unenforcable. I don´t think the MCA ask if you apply for SSR. In your case I doubt if you need to worry, unless the customs snag it on the way in. We also bought a `Jon boat´ in from the US. Nobody has aked us yet. But we only use it for river trips, on the sea it would be different.
Not a direct answer, just my experience
Andrew

I should add that the boat was with our furniture. The local (Portuguese) customs footsoldier noted it, but I heared no more

 

[jakeroyd]

Hi Colum,
RCD applies to boats 2.5 to 24m so your 13' boat comes inside the length criteria.
However , not sure about selling and buying secondhand.
I have come across this recently with my own boat which has full RCD but had no plate. The boatbuilders who took over the company that built my boat are making one for me. Not the same problem you face but related. I understood it is illegal to sell a boat in the EU without it but as other forumites will know , this is not really enforced with rigour ?
Before I found this solution I did find out from a company called 'CE-Proof' that doing a certificate from scratch costs £2750 , impractical for me and also for you.
The RYA have good stuff about the RCD/CE at:-
http://www.rya.org.uk/KnowledgeBase/technical/reccraftdir.htm

see also:-
www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1759329/an/0/page/7

 

[GSL]

I am in the middle of obtaining CE Certification for a Sea Ray I have recently imported from the US. The pricing for Certification varies depending on the size of boat. The quoted price in a previous posting is for a boat somewhat bigger than yours. CE Proof are doing my boat.

Remember, it is a criminal offence to put a boat into service without CE Certification, and the penalties are significant. Quite possibly the issues would only come to light in the event of an accident or insurance claim, but I for one do not want a criminal record for a boating incident.

 

[Colummcd]

Who actually checks for the CE plate / certificate when the boat arrives at the port ?
None of my previous boats (bought within UK) were ever registered one is a 9ft rowing boat and the other was a 12ft dory.

I know a lot of the information I have found on the internet seems to relate to yachts, powers boats etc , is some one really going to investigate a rowing boat / punt ?