Food and drink

[lustyd]

Sorry if this one has been done to death, but the other thread about EU travel got me thinking (and the docs didn't seem clear) what food and drink I can eep on board. It seems unlikely that I have to travel with no food or drink on board, or that I'd be charged taxes for having a reasonable store of things. I'm completely uninterested in duty free and tax avoidance, but at the same time I think a yacht without some wine, beer, spirits on board would be a very dull yacht to sail, especially if there were no food! Unfortunately it's also clear that anything not bought at the destination is effectively not duty paid.
What is real world experience here? I've heard the ham sandwich scare stories, but that seems more like propaganda to enrage the public to me. I'm hoping to go over to the CI's and France next year if things remain open so will be good to know what people have found.

 

[Stemar]

While I'm inclined to think the ham sandwich incident was an excès de zèle, for which I understand the Belgians have previous, even if it's correct in the strict letter of the law, I think one could argue that a reasonable quantity of stores on a boat, for consumption on that boat is not being imported. I wouldn't want to have to argue it with a foreign version of PC Shinyboots in his backyard, though.

 

[lustyd]

That’s what I’m worried about. I can’t argue as I’ve no idea what the rules are. What happens elsewhere? The rules must be relatively similar at most borders for yachting?

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I think one could argue that a reasonable quantity of stores on a boat, for consumption on that boat is not being imported.

From Handling and disposing of international catering waste

Food and drink is not considered ICW until it is no longer intended for human consumption or has been mixed with food waste.

If you're still going to eat it, it's stores, and it's fine if kept on board. It's waste sourced from GB/IoM/CI that you intend to ditch in a country outside GB/IoM/CI that has regulations controlling it. I guess making ham sandwiches from GB/IoM/CI sourced food and taking them ashore for a Scooby snack is not allowed either.

 

[Graham376]

No-one has reported any food searches so far so, why worry? I doubt many officials have the time or inclination to search for banned food unless you've pissed them off and they want to make life difficult.

 

[Daydream believer]

No-one has reported any food searches so far so, why worry? I doubt many officials have the time or inclination to search for banned food unless you've pissed them off and they want to make life difficult.

That will be me stuffed then

 

[AngusMcDoon]

No-one has reported any food searches so far so, why worry? I doubt many officials have the time or inclination to search for banned food unless you've pissed them off and they want to make life difficult.

I doubt it too. Following the rules to the letter is pretty much impossible for leisure craft as obtaining a DEFRA approved disinfectant isn't going to be easy. This is the procedure...

- More than 12 miles out you can ditch food waste overboard.
- Any food waste that arises between there and coming ashore put it in a Tupperware box marked 'Category 1 - for disposal only', and then throw the contents in the ICW bin on arrival. Ports of entry should have ICW bins. Hopefully they are accessible to crew of small craft.
- Fill in this form on return to UK and give it to the HM, who will look at you blankly before filing it in file WPB.
- Clean out your ICW Tupperware box with a DEFRA approved disinfectant from this list.

I expect there's probably a form you have to fill in and a disinfecting procedure on arrival in your overseas country, but the UK guvmint website doesn't give details of that.

 

[stranded]

Sorry if this one has been done to death, but the other thread about EU travel got me thinking (and the docs didn't seem clear) what food and drink I can eep on board. It seems unlikely that I have to travel with no food or drink on board, or that I'd be charged taxes for having a reasonable store of things. I'm completely uninterested in duty free and tax avoidance, but at the same time I think a yacht without some wine, beer, spirits on board would be a very dull yacht to sail, especially if there were no food! Unfortunately it's also clear that anything not bought at the destination is effectively not duty paid.
What is real world experience here? I've heard the ham sandwich scare stories, but that seems more like propaganda to enrage the public to me. I'm hoping to go over to the CI's and France next year if things remain open so will be good to know what people have found.

I got the below response when I asked Jersey customs this summer - told them we tend to have several months of booze on board because we stick up when we are (rarely) connected to shore.

Thanks for your email.

As long as the alcohol stays on board we will be happy with that arrangement as they are kept as ship's stores..

Enjoy your tipple whilst mooring in the marina when the sun is shining

Kind regards
Nick Pallot – Customs Officer

 

[westhinder]

While I'm inclined to think the ham sandwich incident was an excès de zèle, for which I understand the Belgians have previous, even if it's correct in the strict letter of the law, I think one could argue that a reasonable quantity of stores on a boat, for consumption on that boat is not being imported. I wouldn't want to have to argue it with a foreign version of PC Shinyboots in his backyard, though.

IIRC the ham sandwich incident occurred at Hoek van Holland.
I can’t imagine customs officers wasting their time on your food and drink stores, unless you have irritated them.
In general as long as food and drink remain on board there should be no problem.
Having said that, just a couple of years ago we arrived in Halifax from the Azores, and the customs officers who cleared us in, told us in no uncertain terms that not only our food was to remain on board, but also the waste. We had 13 days worth of household waste from 4 adults neatly packaged and it could only be removed by a specially licensed company at high cost. At least, that was the theory. I do not think anyone here will be interested in the contents of your bin.

 

[BobnLesley]

...I can’t imagine customs officers wasting their time on your food and drink stores, unless you have irritated them...

The same everywhere but particularly noticeable in the Caribbean when we were checking in & out regularly; only two or three boats in a hundred got any grief from the authorities, but for some strange and inexplicable reason, it was invariably the same 2 or 3 who got 'picked on'.

 

[Bobc]

Nobody will care. They won't even want to come and look at your boat.

 

[lustyd]

why worry?

I’m worried about not knowing the rules and about wasting good food and drink. I’m not worried about the actual rules, I just want to know them. I also have 6 bottles of spirits on board, all partly consumed, seems a faff to empty these out before a cruise, especially when they’re there for consumption during a cruise!

 

[Stemar]

for some strange and inexplicable reason, it was invariably the same 2 or 3 who got 'picked on'.

I'm going to guess it tended to be the scruffy boat with younger, hairier people on board and laundry in the rigging, rather than the retired couple in their immaculate Halberg Rassey

 

[RobbieW]

I'm going to guess it tended to be the scruffy boat with younger, hairier people on board and laundry in the rigging, rather than the retired couple in their immaculate Halberg Rassey

I wonder if your prejudices are showing ? I'd think more likely the ones who try to tell people how to do their job will be picked on

 

[lustyd]

the ones who try to tell people how to do their job

That's how I took it too. I must admit though that my own prejudices suggest that those ones are in a HR with a defaced blue ensign and they're also telling everyone in the office how their HR will outlast the scruffy harbour due to the extra thick wood...

 

[Stemar]

I wonder if your prejudices are showing?

I sail a scruffy boat myself, but don't stay on board long enough for the laundry, though I will confess to a prejudice against "those ones are in a HR with a defaced blue ensign" if they're also telling people how to do their job. The ones the Internet calls Karens. A propos, what do they call a male Karen?

 

[lustyd]

In my defence, those ones stick out because nobody else has ever proatively told me what boat they were in so the other group includes everyone else. A little like the old "how do you tell if someone is a vegan?" joke. I don't actually have anything against HR owners, they are lovelly boats usually and hold value incredibly well.

 

[Graham376]

A propos, what do they call a male Karen?

Rhymes with "anchor"

 

[RobbieW]

A propos, what do they call a male Karen?

Apparently thats Ken

 

[BobnLesley]

I'm going to guess it tended to be the scruffy boat with younger, hairier people on board and laundry in the rigging, rather than the retired couple in their immaculate Halberg Rassey

Not at all, RobbieW was nearer the mark. Usually people sailing well maintained and expensive 'name-brand' yachts most often flying lots of stars and stripes on the back; nothing seems to get a Customs/Immigration Officer's back-up faster than being told how much better and more efficiently/properly things are done back where you come from.
Having said that, (in the interests of national balance) the most outrageous demonstration of such snotty-yotty behaviour I ever witnessed was given by the skipper of a blue-ensigned Halberg, berating the Antiguan officials for failing to overcome his own documentation cock-up fast enough - he had a dinner reservation at a restaurant in St Kitts this evening damn-it! During his foot-tapping wait he asked me for an opinion of the feckless idiots he was waiting on to which I suggested that they seemed to be doing a very good job in the face of his incompetence and arrogance, which earned me amongst other things, the threat of 'a bop on the nose'; those were his very words, it was hard not to laugh. When the... as Graham376 suggests 'rhymes with anchor' finally departed - I think they were just glad to have him out of their country - the lead officer turned to me and apologised for the delay then added "we were all really hoping that he'd hit you on the nose". I was somewhat taken aback until he added: "There's not much we can do when we get one of those, but if he'd actually hit you; then we could've arrested him and he'd not have got off the island before going to court on Monday; if the police weren't busy, we could even have detained him in their cells until then."
I've often wondered how long it took him to check back in to Antigua when he returned - the boat lived in Jolly Harbour Marina.