Hands up those who have been fined for not having a registration document

  • Thread starter Thread starter timbartlett
  • Start date Start date
al.carpenter said:
well done michaelchapman, you are a better researcher than me (I just pasted the fine with the 1960 date...) still, you were fined for an offence that you should not have been concerned with and I suspect the douaniers knew that...and, as usual, the uniform probably added weight to their arguments... and maybe, the fine did not even end in their own pocket...
Click to expand...

No no. Not me. I have never been fined. I have my part one registration to hand.

I know the importance of presenting official looking pieces of paper in France. If you don't have the right document, it seems to work to bombard them with a few others and explain that this is equivalent to that etc etc.

Incidentally, the last control was done by VHF - they asked to me essentially read off the registration document every one of the figures on there. They also wanted to know where I was coming from (a port in France) and where I was going to (a port in Spain) They seemed happy after that.

Once it looked like I was going to be boarded by Gendarmes from two cutters, a Spanish one and a French one. I was heading into a small bay under sail and they came up on my port side. It looked like they expected me to be motor sailing because they did not give way until the very last moment. They then went and stood off outside the bay for a while and once I was tied up to a mooring buouy, they seemed to lose interest and then motored off at high speed together.

If you don't have a registration document, you will have a hard time in French and Spanish marinas who will always want to see one.
 
toad_oftoadhall said:
I am, I'm sure you are. Trahona is. Tim is. There's four.

Do you think anyone would *not* be grateful for the post?
Click to expand...

Grateful for what?
It has no relevence to sailing, why would anyone sail across the channel without at least a SSR. Really stupid thing to do and just asking for trouble.

Obscure legalitys may be on interest to some, I'm just here to watch the bickering :)
 
Real life experience, just done a day trip to Dover and back (I keep the boat in Calais) , Boarded in Calais 2008 on the way back to the marina, Inspected SSR and passports, asked for insurance certificate (local by-law) Keen to know the make of the engine??? and had a quick look around opened a few lockers etc. The only slight stumbling block was Port of registry, in the end I said Plymouth and everyone was happy. No questions about VAT at all.
 
Conachair said:
Grateful for what?
It has no relevence to sailing, why would anyone sail across the channel without at least a SSR. Really stupid thing to do and just asking for trouble.

Obscure legalitys may be on interest to some, I'm just here to watch the bickering :)
Click to expand...
So you support the imposition of illegal penalties by junior officials?
 
michaelchapman
quote
Once it looked like I was going to be boarded by Gendarmes from two cutters, a Spanish one and a French one. I was heading into a small bay under sail and they came up on my port side. It looked like they expected me to be motor sailing because they did not give way until the very last moment. They then went and stood off outside the bay for a while and once I was tied up to a mooring buouy, they seemed to lose interest and then motored off at high speed together.
unquote

when one sails on such a beautiful BCPC as "Alexander T" one is bound to attract a lot of attention and after all, even customs officers can have good taste... and you probably have more than once been checked just to satisfy the curiosity of a connaisseur gendarme or gabelou...
Congrats on your boat choice. If only I could afford her...
 
timbartlett said:
So you support the imposition of illegal penalties by junior officials?
Click to expand...

Only once. In Dakar. He was very big and had a gun. But he only ripped me off for a fiver and was all smiles afterwards.

Actually twice, Tangier the fridge was emptied of flavoured youghurt for the guys' kids. He left me the wine. :)

Me stance is why bother looking for trouble by crossing to France without a ssr or part1 reg for the boat? Why look for trouble, have the bits of paper to shut up the officials then have a nice lunch. That's how most people do it.
 
Conachair said:
Only once. In Dakar. He was very big and had a gun. But he only ripped me off for a fiver and was all smiles afterwards.

Actually twice, Tangier the fridge was emptied of flavoured youghurt for the guys' kids. He left me the wine. :)

Me stance is why bother looking for trouble by crossing to France without a ssr or part1 reg for the boat? Why look for trouble, have the bits of paper to shut up the officials then have a nice lunch. That's how most people do it.
Click to expand...

Absolutely right. There are no 'illegal penalties' for those with the sense to take a document costing buttons with them. I doubt that there is anyone even contemplating sailing in foreign waters who doesn't know that a registration document is required. The cases quoted universally describe occasions when the document had lapsed, was a photocopy or had been left at home.

This is an utterly pointless thread.
 
al.carpenter said:
when one sails on such a beautiful BCPC as "Alexander T" one is bound to attract a lot of attention and after all, even customs officers can have good taste... and you probably have more than once been checked just to satisfy the curiosity of a connaisseur gendarme or gabelou...
Congrats on your boat choice. If only I could afford her...
Click to expand...

I think we can all agree on that.

If I was a French Seabourne Rozzer, I would be also be making a bee-line for a stunner like "Alexander T".
 
vyv_cox said:
There are no 'illegal penalties' for those with the sense to take a document costing buttons with them.
Click to expand...

"Good morning Sir, I'm a bent copper. I was going to make up a fake law to defraud you of money. Now I notice you have an SSR I won't."

I suspect the bent copper would simply say "Good morning Sir, I'm a bent copper. Although your papers are in order I notice your flares don't meet local bylaws and, lucky for you, there is a fixed penalty option for that offence."

An SSR cannot protect you from 'illegal penalties'.

vyv_cox said:
This is an utterly pointless thread.
Click to expand...

Yet, in spite of that, you have contributed to it several times. I'll leave others to judge the usefulness of those contributions.
 
Last edited:
hum, in answer to the question "what was the offence code" i dunno. I think they were armed and ready to spend all day discussing everything if i wanted to do that, probably including telling me to "wait there" in a cell or wherever while they had lunch ..... and i wanted to get on with having a holiday rather than kicking off about a fine of about £100.
 
tcm said:
It isn't a false dichotomy - EITHER you pay right now and that's it all over ...OR you can kick up a fuss and waste lots of time.
Click to expand...

I wish I hadn't got myself into this irrelevance, but I have, so sorry.

Yes it was a false dichotomy. You said the reason you didn't find out the offence was because the choice you had was either a) not find what the offence was or b) 'kick off'. There's a middle ground of politely asking or even simply paying up and then looking at the receipt.

As I say it doesn't really matter *why* you didn't find out what the offence. The fact is you didn't so we don't know.

This really makes no odds and I wish I hadn't responded, so sorry again.
 
tcm said:
sheesh, you really must be one of the dullest posters on here - thorough yet... uninteresting, uninformative and often downright rude and ignorant!
Click to expand...

However, he does fill the yawning gap where Gordon Brown was in the list of people you would least like to meet in a pub.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top