Registration on SSR for non-UK and non-EU

Gedimin

Gedimin

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Not sure if someone can help, but there is a weird situation...
I have bought a sailing yacht which is already registered in SSR. And I would like just to have my name on it so that I could visit France or Ireland occasionally. However, the problem is that it is apparently open only to UK or EU citizens. I have indefinite leave to remain and reside permanently in the UK, but it is not enough. At the same time, I can't register the boat with my 'passport country' either - because I do not live permanently there anymore, and because it will be complete mess with documents and procedures if I was to do so.
The only advice I got from Registry is that I could 'sell' a majority share to my wife (EU national) and then apply for Part 1 registry. Which seems unnecessarily complicated and also unfair - I am excluded to fly any national flag on my own.
Any other ideas?
 
Gedimin said:
Not sure if someone can help, but there is a weird situation...
I have bought a sailing yacht which is already registered in SSR. And I would like just to have my name on it so that I could visit France or Ireland occasionally. However, the problem is that it is apparently open only to UK or EU citizens. I have indefinite leave to remain and reside permanently in the UK, but it is not enough. At the same time, I can't register the boat with my 'passport country' either - because I do not live permanently there anymore, and because it will be complete mess with documents and procedures if I was to do so.
The only advice I got from Registry is that I could 'sell' a majority share to my wife (EU national) and then apply for Part 1 registry. Which seems unnecessarily complicated and also unfair - I am excluded to fly any national flag on my own.
Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

If your wife sails with you and she is resident in uk, can't you transfer ownership to her and then she can register it on ssr. Maybe you can then sail it alone without her if you get her written permission?
Not sure about after brexit though. No-one knows that answer until after the event, if ever.
 
It's also the case that the advice about UK or EU nationals is not what the original law, enacted in Parliament, actually said. You have to be Ordinarily Resident is what it said. This nothing to do with nationality.

Advice I got from the MCA was that all applications are looked at on the circumstances of the case, so I advise you simply to apply, with a covering letter, and see what happens. Emphasise that you are resident in the UK and indeed married to UK citizen, and keep the boat here. At worst they can reject you.

I wouldn't put 2p on the answer to an enquiry by phone: to get my advice I had to write, then wait 3 months to get an answer from a government lawyer, who said (without quite admitting that they'd made a mess of it) that I was right and they were wrong (my enquiry was about the 185 days in the UK 'rule' which they used to quote, as did the RYA, yet was boll**cks).
 
They now replied me in writing that I have to be both resident and UK/EU citizen to register it. Very unfair cause I can't get it registered under my passport flag either :(

I do understand that I can just register it to my wife, but still feel bad about situation.
 
Gedimin said:
They now replied me in writing that I have to be both resident and UK/EU citizen to register it. Very unfair cause I can't get it registered under my passport flag either :(

I do understand that I can just register it to my wife, but still feel bad about situation.
Click to expand...
These are the citizenship requirements

"Persons eligible for the UK Small Ships register are:
(a) British citizens;
(b) Persons who are nationals of an EU or EEA country other than the UK and who are established in the UK in accordance with Articles 48 and 52 of the EU Treaty;
(c) British Dependent Territories citizens; British Overseas citizens; persons who under the British Nationality Act 1991 are British subjects; persons who under the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order are British Nationals Overseas, and
(d) British Commonwealth citizens not falling within those paragraphs."
 
Gedimin said:
They now replied me in writing that I have to be both resident and UK/EU citizen to register it. Very unfair cause I can't get it registered under my passport flag either :(
I do understand that I can just register it to my wife, but still feel bad about situation.
Click to expand...
I agree it does seem to be unfair if you are an established resident in the UK. I'm an EU citizen resident in Turkey and I would be entitled to register a boat here. Similarly in Ireland if you're an established resident you're entitled to register regardless of nationality - the Irish regulations on eligibility include "(g) a non EEA state national residing in the State, except that such person may not register a fishing boat on the Register".
 
If you put it in your wife's name, check the insurance. IIRC some insurers require the owner to be on board.
 
PlanB said:
If you put it in your wife's name, check the insurance. IIRC some insurers require the owner to be on board.
Click to expand...

The actual ownership wouldn't change, the boat would still be the OP's. I could register the OP's boat on the SSR with my name if I wished. It doesn't make it mine. Agree, it could cause some confusion though.
 
Gedimin said:
Not sure if someone can help, but there is a weird situation...
I have bought a sailing yacht which is already registered in SSR. And I would like just to have my name on it so that I could visit France or Ireland occasionally. However, the problem is that it is apparently open only to UK or EU citizens. I have indefinite leave to remain and reside permanently in the UK, but it is not enough. At the same time, I can't register the boat with my 'passport country' either - because I do not live permanently there anymore, and because it will be complete mess with documents and procedures if I was to do so.
The only advice I got from Registry is that I could 'sell' a majority share to my wife (EU national) and then apply for Part 1 registry. Which seems unnecessarily complicated and also unfair - I am excluded to fly any national flag on my own.
Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

You could apply for UK nationality.
Or you could form a limited company in the UK and register the boat on part one of the register in the company name. The company can be owned by anyone and its directors don't need to be UK citizens.
 
lw395 said:
Or you could form a limited company in the UK and register the boat on part one of the register in the company name. The company can be owned by anyone and its directors don't need to be UK citizens.
Click to expand...

Do keep up-then the vessel would not be eligible for the SSR. The SSR was bought in as a simple registration system for private boats.
 
rotrax said:
Do keep up-then the vessel would not be eligible for the SSR. The SSR was bought in as a simple registration system for private boats.
Click to expand...

Indeed.
But is being on the SSR an aim in itself, or is the object of the game to be able to sail to France etc?
SSR is not an option unless you fulfil the nationality requirements.
So, the options are:
acquire nationality
a company and part 1.
a co-owner, nominee owner
some other flag...
or stay in UK waters?
Any other options?

Before SSR existed, we got by, but then the French started getting awkward IIRC. Many UK boats were not registered back in the day.
 
Sorry to say that this comes back to the old maxim 'If you don't ask, they can't say no'.
Now, AFAICS your only option is to become joint owners with your wife and put her name on the SSR.
I'm not sure if you can have joint owners names on SSR, if you can, do that, her name first.
 
lw395 said:
Or you could form a limited company in the UK and register the boat on part one of the register in the company name. The company can be owned by anyone and its directors don't need to be UK citizens.
Click to expand...

rotrax said:
Do keep up-then the vessel would not be eligible for the SSR. The SSR was bought in as a simple registration system for private boats.
Click to expand...

Part 1 isn't the SSR.

Part 1 specifically allows a company to own the boat:

https://assets.publishing.service.g..._App_to_Register_a_Vessel_on_Part_1__002_.pdf
 
I decided to abandon formalities :) Not registering it for this season - anyway will spend all time learning it inside out in UK waters. And before next season kicks in I might already have UK passport anyway
 
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