Mistroma
Well-known member
We were anchored off Portoferria, Elba and had visit from the Carabinieri launch tonight. They asked for out documents and we handed over the folder with everything including part I, insurance, bill of sale, original receipt from dealer, radio licence (covering VHF,AIS,EPIRB & handheld), liferaft service record, personal lic. for VHF & RYA certificates). They motored back a few minutes later for our passports (we expected that and had dug them out of the safe).
After a goodly while they came back and said the boat was OK but the tender and outboard weren't covered. We insisted that they were and if they returned just the insurance documents we'd find the details. They refused and we insisted the details must be there. They came back and said it just mentioned outboard and tender so could be any engine. We needed to prove that our specific outboard and tender were covered.
We were very apologetic and said it must be a simple mistake and our insurance would email correct documents. Didn't go down well and my wife thought they wanted to impound the outboard. I didn't pick that up but they didn't speak much English.
I dug out the outboard manual and said I also had another for the tender. Both had the serial numbers written on the back page.
By this time my wife had opened our electronic copies and found the relevant section. They had confirmed that our Yanmar inboard was covered so we called over to ask them to look under Yanmar at the next 2 lines.
Marca e Identificativo di serie del motore: Yanmr 4JH4AE Serial No. Ennnnn
Identificativo del tender: NL-LOA 22007Lnnn
Identificativo del motore amovibile (fuoribordo): OPnnnnnn
After another long look at everything they finally returned our documents and moved on. No idea how they could have missed the tender details, especially as it also had a box ticked to confirm boat, tender and engine were all covered (plus text in Italian). They spent over an hour with the next boat and then returned to the marina. A couple of other visiting boats moved into the marina while they were still checking the 2nd boat. Expensive option at 122 eur/night (not certain if that includes IVA) for what's really a town quay.
Our documents are in a binder with everything split into poly sleeves to keep relevant stuff together. I suspect that the fact we could find everything easily and it was well laid out put them off wasting any more time.
I hate to think what it would be like for someone with poorer documentation.
After a goodly while they came back and said the boat was OK but the tender and outboard weren't covered. We insisted that they were and if they returned just the insurance documents we'd find the details. They refused and we insisted the details must be there. They came back and said it just mentioned outboard and tender so could be any engine. We needed to prove that our specific outboard and tender were covered.
We were very apologetic and said it must be a simple mistake and our insurance would email correct documents. Didn't go down well and my wife thought they wanted to impound the outboard. I didn't pick that up but they didn't speak much English.
I dug out the outboard manual and said I also had another for the tender. Both had the serial numbers written on the back page.
By this time my wife had opened our electronic copies and found the relevant section. They had confirmed that our Yanmar inboard was covered so we called over to ask them to look under Yanmar at the next 2 lines.
Marca e Identificativo di serie del motore: Yanmr 4JH4AE Serial No. Ennnnn
Identificativo del tender: NL-LOA 22007Lnnn
Identificativo del motore amovibile (fuoribordo): OPnnnnnn
After another long look at everything they finally returned our documents and moved on. No idea how they could have missed the tender details, especially as it also had a box ticked to confirm boat, tender and engine were all covered (plus text in Italian). They spent over an hour with the next boat and then returned to the marina. A couple of other visiting boats moved into the marina while they were still checking the 2nd boat. Expensive option at 122 eur/night (not certain if that includes IVA) for what's really a town quay.
Our documents are in a binder with everything split into poly sleeves to keep relevant stuff together. I suspect that the fact we could find everything easily and it was well laid out put them off wasting any more time.
I hate to think what it would be like for someone with poorer documentation.
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