Online for sailing your boat out of the UK.

[graham]

I have just filled out the UK customs and excise form . Pretty straight forward even for a dinosaur like me.

We havent sailed out of the Uk since before brexit.

I like that you can produce draft forms then edit them if neccesary before you submit them and sail.

Not so keen on only having a 2 hour window for your eta. I intend to be very pessimistic when filling in etas.Better to be early than overdue.

A question I have is do HMRC notify the countries you visit or is a seperate form needed ? In our cases this would be Ireland and or France.

 

[Daydream believer]

Do you live in a bubble?
No, you need a separate French one for France.
French one for Cherbourg

 

[graham]

Thanks for the link. Will do some more googling for Ireland . All the out of date info that google throws up makes it more difficult .

 

[oldmanofthehills]

We did form on line before departure. They dont seem to police the departure - and why would they want to anyway as there is no restriction on leaving UK. We set off outside the slot as thats what worked the tide.

We couldnt amend the return details as the online form is Beta, so I rang up Yachtline from France who said ring us when you are back. However office closed sunday so got put through to Solent who asked me why I was ringing them from Plymouth Sound/Cornwall. And round and round we went. Eventually spoke to young man from Customs who said "small boat with owners only onboard and usual beer and wine duty free?' Yes. "Thats fine the ring immigration. Immigration eventually answered phone after trying third alternative number. They said "you must kep Q flag up till we contact you and rang off. 2 hours later they rang (while I was unblocking heads) said give us passport numbers by email to which i replied I dont have email I will read them out. Oh thats it - bye. I expect they knew no people smugglers are going to go for the 100 mile crossing from Roscoff

A complete and utter shambles.

However they cant arrest a UK citizen for just being in the UK - imagine sending an arrest warrant to your registered legal UK address to complain about you being there, so I guess we put up with this until we rejoin Shengen

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Thanks for the link. Will do some more googling for Ireland . All the out of date info that google throws up makes it more difficult .

You dont need anything for Ireland as long standing historical arrangement. Irish folk have right of residence in UK and vice versa

It has been postulated that if you sailed from UK to Ireland which is in EU you might get away with then sailing to France as an internal passport free transfer but I wouldnt chance it

 

[Tranona]

You dont need anything for Ireland as long standing historical arrangement. Irish folk have right of residence in UK and vice versa

It has been postulated that if you sailed from UK to Ireland which is in EU you might get away with then sailing to France as an internal passport free transfer but I wouldnt chance it

While that is true for people under the CTA it is not for boats as you are going from one VAT regime to another.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

While that is true for people under the CTA it is not for boats as you are going from one VAT regime to another.

I believe the OP was planning to visit the EU and then return, not import his boat there. France didnt care about our boat and didnt want to see our carefully prepared papers. Customs were not bothered either. Immigration was all that counted and they were grumpy as UK strange actions have increased their workload

 

[graham]

Sounds like a shambles.but you cant blame HMRC for your bog blockage

We were anchored at Dale during the pandemic when international travel couldnt happen

.A group of 3 Irish yachts sailed in proudly flying their irish tricolours. They werent bothered by any formalities and had a great time as did we.. At that time the Griffin was selling beer outdoors on a table and Dale YC was serving meals outdoors in pizza boxes.

If the weather is suitable we will submit our plan to HMRC carry our boat paperwork and passports (even though not strictly required) cross over to Ireland ask harbour master for advice then go have some guiness.
.

 

[sailaboutvic]

I think it’s more the uk that busy with who we are , where we going , when we coming back , so on and so on .
last year we has near on six months in the Netherlands,not once was we bothered.
this year we left for Denmark ,
as we had some friends that was returning back to the uk by ferry we check them in Ijmuiden,
I read some where here that you needed a certificate for the boat to be able to stay in the Netherlands for a year ,
cant figure out why as a uk boat can stay in the eu for 18 months before leaving then returning for another 18month , so I ask custom who had no idea what I was on about .
since then we visit Germany and now in Denmark no one interested,
by the way we left two dats after the date we entered on the HMRC form , to be honest I couldn’t be bothered to edit it ,

 

[Daydream believer]

by the way we left two dats after the date we entered on the HMRC form , to be honest I couldn’t be bothered to edit it ,

I thought that they would not be bothered to read it. But one day, prior to departure, a chap rang & asked if the Bradwell that I had entered as a port of departure, was Bradwell Waterside or the Bradwell near Milton Keynes. Obviously he had read it, but the application of brain cells might have been lacking somewhat.
When we returned we phoned the required No. whilst driving home. It was confirmed that we could drop the non existent Q flag. It was difficult hiding the laughter.

 

[graham]

Got this link from Kilmore Quay Marina Website. They are probably fed up with people asking the same old question. i know this doesnt cover questions about yacht VAT status etc but we intend to carry all paperwork we have and more than likely never get asked about it https://kilmorequaymarina.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Memorandum-of-Understanding-Ire-version.pdf

 

[sailaboutvic]

Got this link from Kilmore Quay Marina Website. https://kilmorequaymarina.com/wp-co...orandum-of-Understanding-Ire-version.pdfThere probably fed up with people asking the same old question. i know this doesnt cover questions about yacht VAT status etc but we intend to carry all paperwork we have and more than likely never get asked about it.

I can tel, you in 40 plus year of cruising in southern Europe, the Med , north Africa and now Northernn Europe we never been asked for VAT .
Mostly insurance, registering , passport .
The odd Time my yaxhtmaster/ ICC

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Sounds like a shambles.but you cant blame HMRC for your bog blockage

We were anchored at Dale during the pandemic when international travel couldnt happen

.A group of 3 Irish yachts sailed in proudly flying their irish tricolours. They werent bothered by any formalities and had a great time as did we.. At that time the Griffin was selling beer outdoors on a table and Dale YC was serving meals outdoors in pizza boxes.

If the weather is suitable we will submit our plan to HMRC carry our boat paperwork and passports (even though not strictly required) cross over to Ireland ask harbour master for advice then go have some guiness.

Got this link from Kilmore Quay Marina Website. They are probably fed up with people asking the same old question. i know this doesnt cover questions about yacht VAT status etc but we intend to carry all paperwork we have and more than likely never get asked about it https://kilmorequaymarina.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Memorandum-of-Understanding-Ire-version.pdf

Thats pretty clear. No permission required for irish or uk citizens, thus no need for passport or its stamping on transits between.

The uk notification to exit to ireland or return from ireland flatly contradicts an iternational treaty. What a surprise

 

[Sandy]

A complete and utter shambles.

I spent some time chatting with Border Force at the Devon County Show back in May. They are more than happy to come and visit clubs to explain the process, I have suggested it to my own club as a winter talk.

Given the comments that the chap made I strongly suspect that the clowns in Westminster central government are not making Border Force's life easy.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

I spent some time chatting with Border Force at the Devon County Show back in May. They are more than happy to come and visit clubs to explain the process, I have suggested it to my own club as a winter talk.

Given the comments that the chap made I strongly suspect that the clowns in Westminster central government are not making Border Force's life easy.

The theoretical paper or electronic process is clear, indeed self evident. Its practicality is what is unclear and its application a shambles.

Having moored next to their patrol boats on departure to France, i thought they might look at us, but no they continued drinking coffee and didnt glance at us i.e they didnt give an F about our departure from England. Indeed why should they, as never any legal restriction on leaving the UK except as applied by Courts to certain criminals

Its purpose is unclear and where in flat contradiction of a major internationally recognise treaty, then its applicability is debatable.

Think I will just ring yacht line when returning from France

 

[WannabePirate]

Here to echo the calls of shambles!

I did a few crossings recently, two UK citizens, Canadian, Singaporean, Bermudan, on board.

At no point did anybody ever ring or visit us.

On one occasion I had need to amend the arrival time, so I followed the instructions, rang yachtline, who had no idea what to do….eventually they gave me the private mobile number for Portsmouth’s (we were going to Hamble from La Havre) top border force boy!

He was at first perplexed as to why they would give me his private number; but he was nice enough and agreed to help. First problem; he couldn’t find the form. I said I had confirmation etc, he said it was normal to not find the form and not to worry. Just resubmit and all would be fine.

Second problem; I can’t resubmit with a backdated departure for amendment…now we’ve left the country and come back 4 times in a week and a 5th on paper…nobody’s been stamped in/out the UK whatsoever.

Anyway, head of border force Portsmouth sends me an email saying he still can’t find the form; but it not to worry, just send him the details in response on an email, he’ll decide if he wants to send someone down, and he’ll send me a text/call/email if he decides not to.

Off we set from La Havre, arrive in Hamble…we wait around several hours, I text, call, email, him…all to no response. Nobody turns up. So we just carried on with our business!

It didn’t turn out to be a problem for the people trying to leave the UK without being stamped in, despite numerous stampings in/out of France since their UK entry stamp.

Absolute, utter, shambles.

 

[doug748]

Hello graham
The system has been pretty much unchanged for 40 years, except for the addition of the online option. Seems to work very well. I suspect some people just like a bit of a moan.
The Continental system is far more onerous, buggy and inflexible. Customs officials on both sides of the Channel have more on their plate and will generally close two blind eyes as long as long as an effort is made.

 

[st599]

It is really broken if you try and use the system with persons without a British or Irish passport. Even if they have leave to remain in the UK, the form tells you you must ring Yachtline before setting off for the UK. Yachtline don't seem to have been told this and are surprised when you call.

 

[WannabePirate]

…Yachtline don't seem to have been told this and are surprised when you call.

I’ve been very recently told yachtline is the service that has been around for private pilots for a long time, then got lumped with yachts too in recent years.

I’m entirely unsure how true this is though.

 

[st599]

The Continental system is far more onerous, buggy and inflexible. Customs officials on both sides of the Channel have more on their plate and will generally close two blind eyes as long as long as an effort is made.

The continental system hasn't rolled out yet. At the moment there's a country by country system, most of which are a stop gap.