New rules for boating from EU to UK

[Solent sailer]

You are quite right, I had misread that. It appears you do need to phone the National Yachtline in any case.

It seems to me when things return to normal, the National Yachtline is going to be inundated with calls and C1331 forms given all the cross channel traffic in pleasure craft.

So I have only 2 questions:
1. By when is it necessary to call the Yachtline? Do you have to do it as soon as you pass the12 mile limit and before you reach your berth, or can you get off the boat and ask to use the phone at the Harbour Master's office (a mobile phone with a flat battery after 12+ hours at sea is not uncommon)?

2. If I have a RIB and no ability to fly the Q flag then is simply calling the Yachtline to inform of this sufficient or are there any penalties for no Q flag?

We have called yacht line when returning from the channel islands and they have always just asked if we have anything to declare and to confirm know one has gone assure before we made the call, they didn't seem to mind when we made the call as long as we were all still on board.
I think you are right though, they are going to be busy come summer! (assuming we can travel by then...)

 

[st599]

The website they're beta testing requires a location and time of arrival, presumably to allow a cutter to visit you.

 

[Bathdave]

It’s my understanding that the online process referred to above, which can be done at sea from a mobile phone (once you have a signal!) is intended to be up and running for the start of the boating season and will replace the clunky telephone and paper process which is currently the one on the UK gov site that most of these posts refer to

those who had their boat in a EU port on 31 Dec but are bringing it back in the next few days may have to do the old (well, current) process but the vast majority who wont be venturing cross channel/irish sea until the spring should be able to avail themselves of the new process which looks like it should be very slick and easy

 

[JumbleDuck]

That's something new that I learned today...thank you ...

You're welcome. Invaluable pub quiz knowledge!

 

[laika]

So I have only 2 questions:
1. By when is it necessary to call the Yachtline? Do you have to do it as soon as you pass the12 mile limit and before you reach your berth, or can you get off the boat and ask to use the phone at the Harbour Master's office (a mobile phone with a flat battery after 12+ hours at sea is not uncommon)?

2. If I have a RIB and no ability to fly the Q flag then is simply calling the Yachtline to inform of this sufficient or are there any penalties for no Q flag?

Your Q2 notwithstanding, you hoist the Q when entering UK territorial waters but call the yachtline "when you arrive": Wording from the notes to the C1331 (linked in previous post). I don't have a source but I take that to mean when you've reached your berth so you can tell the yachtline where they can send customs inspectors to. Again no definitive confirmation of my "I think..." answer to your Q1 but as someone unashamed to ask official agencies when unsure, I'm certain enough that the RYA's generic customs procedure would apply (crew stays aboard but skipper does whatever is required to contact customs/immigration, e.g. finding a phonebox) that I won't bother. 20-something years ago that's what would have happened and I've not seen a notice that it's explicitly changed.

*Don't* take as authoritative any anecdotes from reports people are posting about what the national yachtline have told them. As we've discussed several times before, the people staffing that can be clueless.
- They told me that Alderney was part of the EU so I didn't need to do anything
- They didn't mention C1331 until I did
- They were mightily confused by procedure for a trip which had taken me uk-france-channel islands-uk. Apparently they'd never heard of this happening before and I had to argue with them about why C1331 part 1 didn't apply. To be honest I don't think I "won", they just didn't care

People have posted stories about customs forms from pre-eu days just being binned. Are the C1331 forms tallied up with calls to the yachtline? To know that a curious person would have to perform the experiment of giving all their details correctly to the yachtline, the C1331 part 2 then being "lost in the post", and said curious person would need to see if anyone contacted them to enquire about the missing data. If contacted they would know that their efforts in doing what was asked of them were not simply wasted. Otherwise they might write off the procedure as farcical and be less prone to waste their time in future.

Will the yachtline actually know what they're doing and care a bit more now we're no longer in the EU? Presumably yes as maybe more people will be calling them but maybe they'll just remain incompetent until replaced by this e-borders thing.

For part 2...I'm not a rib owner. How do you fly an ensign or a courtesy flag? If you have one of those sticky-up consoles with a wheel on, can you attach a pole to that? No idea about penalties but (citation needed) I can't believe there's be heinous penalties for overlooking this if you're complying with everything else and not doing anything dodgy.

 

[CLB]

If the RIB is big enough to cross the Channel, it will have somewhere to put a Q flag. Tied to the VHF aerial perhaps?

 

[CLB]

I have come back to the UK direct from the CIs many times. Only once did I call the Yachtline and follow correct procedures. The person who answered the phone did not seem to understand why I was calling. I had to explain to them the procedure I was trying to follow. I never called again. I'll give it another go now we are out of the EU and hopefully the staff will be better versed in requirements.

 

[bluerm166]

How do you clear customs if arriving back,with Q flag flying,at your home berth where customs have no (apparent) base.Will Yachtline tell you to stand down ,assuming you have nothing/people to declare and just send the forms.

 

[st599]

How do you clear customs if arriving back,with Q flag flying,at your home berth where customs have no (apparent) base.Will Yachtline tell you to stand down ,assuming you have nothing/people to declare and just send the forms.

Using Yachtline, you're meant to hang around for 2 hours after tying up.

On the new online tool, you give a location and time to meet the customs cutter. Then hang around there.

 

[Sandy]

How do you clear customs if arriving back,with Q flag flying,at your home berth where customs have no (apparent) base.Will Yachtline tell you to stand down ,assuming you have nothing/people to declare and just send the forms.

I have arrived back in Plymouth on Brittany Ferries only to find a big red telephone on the wall to declare any goods.

Saying that, over the last 18 months there has been a far greater Border Force presence in the port, I am currently berthed there.

 

[st599]

I have arrived back in Plymouth on Brittany Ferries only to find a big red telephone on the wall to declare any goods.

Saying that, over the last 18 months there has been a far greater Border Force presence in the port, I am currently berthed there.

The joyous red phones are hilarious.

The person on the other end never knows where the phone is located. Flew in to London City last year, used the red phone as I had an ATA Carnet to get stamped, they had to send someone from Heathrow with the stamp.

 

[Kurrawong_Kid]

1. Since the southern portion of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1921, travel, in both directions between the former and the latter has been unrestricted. In light of this , do the skippers of Irish yachts have to comply with this bureaucracy when entering ports in Britain?
2. Regarding the goods of agricultural origin, such as milk and meat, mentioned; are they considered to be imported into the UK if they remain on the boat as part of its victuals, or does this only apply if they leave the vessel?

Certainly prior to joining the EEC you had to both ways! I remember because the partner of the boat I shared failed to wait the requisite 2 hours in Pwllheli and I got a proper rollicking from the Customs Officer the next week end when it was my turn aboard. You had to get clearance in Dun Lau'ry when you arrived as well as changing pounds for punts. Those were the days! Once I went into the D. M.B.C. asked for a pint-1punt, 10 cents-gave bar tender£1.00 and got 10 cents. change!

 

[pandos]

Certainly prior to joining the EEC you had to both ways! I remember because the partner of the boat I shared failed to wait the requisite 2 hours in Pwllheli and I got a proper rollicking from the Customs Officer the next week end when it was my turn aboard. You had to get clearance in Dun Lau'ry when you arrived as well as changing pounds for punts. Those were the days! Once I went into the D. M.B.C. asked for a pint-1punt, 10 cents-gave bar tender£1.00 and got 10 cents. change!

Well as a Punt equals 1.27 Euros... You can see that you'd not be getting any change now.. (but you'd get a cheapish pint in Weatherspoons in Dunleary)

 

[Kurrawong_Kid]

Well as a Punt equals 1.27 Euros... You can see that you'd not be getting any change now.. (but you'd get a cheapish pint in Weatherspoons in Dunleary)

I should have written p. not cent! Long time ago.

 

[Praxinoscope]

How do you clear customs if arriving back,with Q flag flying,at your home berth where customs have no (apparent) base.Will Yachtline tell you to stand down ,assuming you have nothing/people to declare and just send the forms.

Sounds a bit like it was 50 years ago when we had a mooring in Mudeford, on arrival back from France the advice was to phone HM Customs at Hurn Airport, which we used to do, HM Customs told us to wait near our boat for two hours if they didn't turn up by then we could just carry on and go home.
Gave us plenty of time to unload all the excess booze.

 

[PabloPicasso]

If one is beating up carlingford lough and criss crossing the international border, would one have to phone the yacht line after every other tack?

 

[JumbleDuck]

If one is beating up carlingford lough and criss crossing the international border, would one have to phone the yacht line after every other tack?

I think the historic free travel area between the UK and Ireland still applies, so no.

 

[pandos]

If one is beating up carlingford lough and criss crossing the international border, would one have to phone the yacht line after every other tack?

If you look you will see that entering Northern Ireland from an EU country is an exception.

Beating up the Irish sea might be another matter?

Free travel only applied to people not goods still need a flag for customs if arriving in GB from Ireland. AFAIK.

 

[Rafiki]

What you have to do when you enter the UK from the EU seems relatively straightforward, what I'm surprised no one has mentioned is that my understanding is that when sailing to/from France you must arrive at a designated immigration/customs port and similiarly depart from one. No all ports are so designated and therefore you cant arrive or depart from Boulogne or Fecamp or Dieppe. At least that is my understanding.

 

[dunedin]

If one is beating up carlingford lough and criss crossing the international border, would one have to phone the yacht line after every other tack?

Actually I looked very carefully at the chart of Carlingford Lough to try to find where the border lies - and it transpires there isn’t an agreed one. This has been formally in dispute for 100 years, and still no line agreed Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border - Wikipedia