CE Compliance Certificate

[jakeroyd]

I bought my boat about 2 years ago , it is a year 2000 build.
It does not have a CE certificate because the first owner fitted the boarding ladder himself and did not send the details to British Hunter at the time. I thought little of this at the time but now need to follow it up.
Since British Hunter no longer exist I have written to Select Yachts to see if they can help me.
If they are unwilling to or not able to help what must I then do ?

I have all the other documents , builders cert etc.

I will enquire with the owners assoc and with the RYA but what advice can forum members give ?

Thanks in advance

 

[MarkGrubb]

Hi,

Is the CE certificate the same thing as the CE mark? or something different for boats?

 

[jakeroyd]

I am not sure boats have an actual CE mark stuck on them but they do need the CE certificate if made after a certain date.
I have all the correspondence but not the certificate.

 

[dnickj]

They should have a CE plate and also be RCD compliant - gain a plate with catagory / max HP /loading etc.
If you cant get anywhere allong the manufacturer route you may have a problem - you could also take it up with whoever sold you the boat as it was illegal for him to sell without the above

 

[jakeroyd]

I have all the RCD stuff , at least in written form , it just CE I lack.

 

[kingfisher]

The original CE certificate (statement of conformity), you will find, is kept on the premises of the manufacturer, so the owner of the boat will at most have a copy. If you do need a copy, contact the manufacturer.

What should be in place is the CE plate, though

 

[Bilgediver]

You are not clear about wether this is a factory build or a home build. If it was a factory build then the boat would have been delivered with a CE plate shing it to be Catagory B . However all the documants you seem to have suggest you may have a home build..

Your best bet if this is the case is to contact the RYA technical department who might be able to help you and if you really do have all the paper work which must include the Operation Manual for the boat then they as a notifiable body may be able to either issue the CE plate or tell you how to go about it. I don t believe there is actually a CE Certificate. This function is crried out by the CE Plate which has makers details, the hull number and the Catagory.

 

[jakeroyd]

Hello John , thankyou for your reply.
No , the boat is not a home build.
The boading ladder was fitted after purchase , the former owner should have sent proof to British Hunter, fro them to issue the Ce plate. He prepared the details which I have , but did not send them (can not recall why).
I have written to Select Yachts but the chances of them helping are slim , unless they have retained British Hunters build records etc. and are prepared to issue on retrospectively.
As I said , I have all the manuals , build certificate etc. and the stability curve and RCD are public domian info with this boat.
Your suggestion of contacting the RYA is a good one , I have considered this and I will follow this line of enquiry up.
I guess they are a body given the capability to perhaps issue a compliance plate.

 

[Bilgediver]

Just can't understand how Hunter delivered a boat which would not obtain CE compliance till the owner fitted the boarding ladder as emrgency boarding is part of the CE requirement!!!!!!!

Yes you need to work with a notifiable body such as RYA or even CE Proof and others as only they can issue a plate for catagories above d which is what you want. Hunters are usually A or B.

 

[blackbeard]

Just to add a little:
If it's a Hunter 245 it will be a Cat B.
Patially completed ("kit") boats, intended for completion by a home builder, were issued with a CE plate indicating the relevant Category when completed. I think it may have required a self-certification by the person doing the completion. My boat, which was home-completed by the previous owner, has such a plate.
Hunters, or Select as they now are, have given up providing "kit" boats - it required too much support!
In general I have found Select quite helpful with Hunter boats - no guarantee that they will be able to in this case, but worth a try

 

[snowleopard]

Given the dates you specify, it looks as though the original owner kept the boat for 6 years. As he did some of the work himself it could perhaps be classified as a self build. The rules for that are that the boat is exempt from the whole CE mess provided it is not sold for 5 years from completion.

 

[Heckler]

again someone twisting them selves in knots, BUT when was the last time some jobsworth arrived on a boat, sucked his teeth, and said hmmm no CE plate, please pay me loadsamoney, and going on from there as i have said many times before concerning vat invoices, WHO can tell when the damn thing is real? my little bene has got an ally plate which i presume is the ce thingy, get a pair of tin snips, cut a nice piece of ally, letter punches etc etc. if the agent manufacturer cannot provide proof, how could a jobsworth prove otherwise?
stu

 

[jakeroyd]

I though I would write and let you know I have now had a response from Select Yachts , after consulting the RYA they can issue the CE plate retropectively for a sum I am prepared to pay. So thankyou Select Yachts.
The moral of the story is that I should have paid more attention to this at the point of sale , so buyer beware.
Of course as skipper_stu points out this makes no difference to the boat at all and yes I could always react against the box tickers and do nothing but that would mean that it would be technically illegal to sell the boat.
So all's well that ends well.
I suppose the RCD and it's link to CE does perform a valuable role in making sure our boats are suitable for use. It does make you think though what an RCD stability category B really means. This has a mean wave height of 4metres. That means you could have waves of all sorts of small and large height that still result in an mean of 4. I suppose there must be an EC standard wave with a peak/trough height and a pitch laid down by some governing body.
When you cast your mind back to the Polish built mini cruiser featured last year in the boating press that had an RCD of C and really should not have been awarded it ( i seem to remember one capsized and stayed overturned and a man was killed) it makes you think that in general there is a benefit to all.

 

[Heckler]

excellent news, as you correctly guessed, i dont like officialdom especially jobsworth officialdom telling me what to do
stu