Part one registration "certificate of survey of tonnage and measurement"

Ian_Edwards

Ian_Edwards

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I was having a clear out and rediscovered the Part One Certificate of British Registration for my boat. I inherited from the previous owner who had a marine mortgage on the boat.
I noticed that most of the recorded details of the boat are wrong, length, beam, draft and weight. I contacted the Registry of shipping in Cardiff to ask them to correct the certificate. The short answer is no they can't, unless I get a "certificate of survey of tonnage and measurement".
Presumably that means I need to get some form of surveyor along to measure the boat, when I already know all the measurements from the designer and builder and then part with £49 to get new certificate issued.
Part of me say, don't bother, I've not need it in the 7 plus years I've had the boat, part of me say that at some point some jobs worthy will ask for the certificate and notice that it is incorrect, especially as we come out of the EU and I might one day venture out of Scottish waters to Euro Land.
Has anyone any idea of what it cost and what's involved in getting a "certificate of survey of tonnage and measurement"?
Cheers
Ian
 
There are very precise rules for the measurements used to prepare a Certificate of Survey. Some of them aren't what you'd necessarily expect. You've mentioned "draft", but this isn't on the Part One Certificate; instead you'll find "depth", which is something quite different and is an internal measurement. Similarly, you've mentioned "weight", and again this isn't on the certificate, but "tonnage" is - and is a theoretical calculation based on the internal volume of the boat. Basically I wouldn't bother worrying about it, nobody is ever likely to query it.

If you decide to go ahead and get a survey, you need to use a surveyor who's a member of an acknowledged society. I used the International Institute of Marine Surveying, which has an office in Gosport.
 
My Part 1 Cert from Jersey had the measurements "length", "overall length" and "breadth" and these were correct as per the builders certificate but, as pvb says, the tonnage and depth figures were different animals.
 
IIRC, the fee of £49 mentioned by the OP is to renew a current certificate for a further 5 years. If it's 7+ years old, then it's expired and considerably more expensive to re-activate.
Pt. 3 might be the way to go.
 
Ian_Edwards said:
.........Part of me say, don't bother, I've not need it in the 7 plus years I've had the boat, part of me say that at some point some jobs worthy will ask for the certificate and notice that it is incorrect, especially as we come out of the EU and I might one day venture out of Scottish waters to Euro Land.
Click to expand...

Why not put it on Part 3/SSR? Job done.
 
Thankyou, I was taking these as literal measurements, not something derived from a formula.
I have length as 14.13, it should be 14.01 .. might make a difference with berthing or canal charges
Breadth 3.94m the beam is 4.11m
No length overall on the certificate.
Gross tonnage 16.38, Registered tonnage 0 and Net tonnage 16.38 .... the light ship weight is 12.429 tons
Year of build 2008, when she was build in 2007.
I'll probably give it a miss, it all seems very 18th Century.
But it seems very strange that a certificate of registration, doesn't really match up with the vessel it purports to certify.
 
Ian_Edwards said:
Thankyou, I was taking these as literal measurements, not something derived from a formula.
I have length as 14.13, it should be 14.01 .. might make a difference with berthing or canal charges
Breadth 3.94m the beam is 4.11m
No length overall on the certificate.
Gross tonnage 16.38, Registered tonnage 0 and Net tonnage 16.38 .... the light ship weight is 12.429 tons
Year of build 2008, when she was build in 2007.
I'll probably give it a miss, it all seems very 18th Century.
But it seems very strange that a certificate of registration, doesn't really match up with the vessel it purports to certify.
Click to expand...

I thought I'd explained that, for example, tonnage doesn't mean the weight of the boat. My Bavaria has a net tonnage of 14.30, but actually weighs about 7 tonnes. The measurement process is 20th century, believe it or not, and is enshrined in The Merchant Shipping (Tonnage) Regulations 1997, which you can read online.
 
Iirc, it's all about collection of tax eg the tonnage is the amount of grain a vessel can carry and part 1 certified that amount, so it made the tax collector's job easier.
 
pvb said:
I thought I'd explained that, for example, tonnage doesn't mean the weight of the boat. My Bavaria has a net tonnage of 14.30, but actually weighs about 7 tonnes. The measurement process is 20th century, believe it or not, and is enshrined in The Merchant Shipping (Tonnage) Regulations 1997, which you can read online.
Click to expand...
Yes, I understand that, I was just adding the basic information, in an attempt to clarify the difference between the certificate and the physical measurements.
 
Ian_Edwards said:
Yes, I understand that, I was just adding the basic information, in an attempt to clarify the difference between the certificate and the physical measurements.
Click to expand...

But the point is that the certificate doesn't necessarily agree with any of the basic physical measurements.
 
Ian_Edwards said:
............I'll probably give it a miss, it all seems very 18th Century.
But it seems very strange that a certificate of registration, doesn't really match up with the vessel it purports to certify.
Click to expand...


If your boat is pretty new or of of high value and the part 1 is still current, it is probably worth keeping up.
 
If you did get a new tonnage measurement done it's likely to give similar (but probably not identical) measurements. As others have said it's not relevant for anything except Part I registration. Historically it was a measure of how many "tun" barrelks of wine or pickled herrings a trading ship could carry, used for calculating port duties/taxes.
 
After recently purchasing the boat I tried renew the lapsed certificate but it needed a new survey costing hundreds plus the same again for the certificate. Although nothing has changed since the first one.

It was like pulling teeth. Sending various documents and bill of sales. Then to be told after months that I now needed a survey.
I decided against it.
 
My old elapsed certificate is totally correct with the dimensions.
In length section everything is crossed out except length and "overall" has been written in.
Same changes in breadth and depth.
 
Thanks for the link, I've looked at the measurement section and it doesn't seem too onerous. However, it does confirm that some of the measurement details are wrong.
I'll have think about it.
Cheers Ian
 
If you have had the boat seven years the certificate is no longer valid and is of no use to you if you take the boat abroad. Actually, it ceased to be valid on change of ownership if the Registry was not informed of the change. If a Part 1 registration has lapsed, re-registration requires a new survey. If you are a member of the RYA there is a discounted scheme you can use which can keep the cost of the survey down. However, you still have to pay £153 for the registration, not the £72 renewal fee.

The measurements in the tonnage survey can be substantially different from the measurements that marinas are interested in. My boat's LOA is 9.2 m, the registered length is 8.6 m, That's accounted for by a short bow plank and a transom-hung rudder.
 
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