RCD and RCR, What are the Differences?

[Graham376]

It appears boats imported to the UK now have to meet UK's Recreational Craft Regulations and wondering what differences (if any) there are are in build specification compared to RCD. Will an RCD compliant boat meet the new UK standards and if not, why not?

 

[coopec]

Sorry! I have no idea. Do these help?

RCD stands for the Recreational Craft Directive, and RCR stands for the Recreational Craft Regulations. They are identical. Now that the UK has left the EU, it is the RCR that is the legally enforceable version.

UK Recreational Craft Regulations 2017 (RCR) – HPi-CEproof Ltd.

 

[Graham376]

Thanks for the link. If the criteria is identical, leaves me wondering why the warnings on various threads about EU imported boats maybe having problems complying.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

To all intents and purposes they are currently identical, AFAIK, but will begin to diverge as the grey eminences behind the recent, (01-01-'21) constitutional changes in the UK find ways of making money by making changes

 

[SailingEd]

Thanks for the link. If the criteria is identical, leaves me wondering why the warnings on various threads about EU imported boats maybe having problems complying.

a new RCD boat most likely conform, while the text is (currently) identical, the text is open to interpretation by two separate governing bodies so the two regulations will start to alter the further into the future we get and there wont be any normalization between them, that said boat builders will still build boats to a UK spec for the UK market, much like Jeanneau / Beneteau / Bavaria have served the US market for many years which have their own versions of RCR/RCD or CE/UKCA requirements.

where it all falls foul -> A rcd complaint boat built in 1990 for example, most certainly wont comply, as it will be assessed by the latest RCR rules on date of import, there are no "grandfather" rights and its likely to fail emission targets as they wasn't as tight back in 1990 and pre-dates CE marking too - so as you can see the problem lies with used boats hence the many thread warnings as its effectively closed the EU second hand boat market unless your pretty flush with cash to make the alterations required to pass

 

[SailingEd]

duplicate post for some reason...

 

[st599]

Are they identical? Looking at EURlex, the RCD had an ammendment this year relating to safety of petrol tank venting systems.

Not sure if the UK followed by ammending the RCR.