Slap on the wrist from French Customs!

Vagabond

Vagabond

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Coming from Dunkerque last Thursday I was boarded by Customs. 4 people with guns!

I had all my documents which was good as they even called up someone, who I don't know and checked my passport and the boat details. The only thing, after they had strip searched the boat that they picked my up on was not keeping my Log book up to date. They did say that they could have fined me but would just give me a warning. One to think about for the next crossing!

They were very considerate, courteous and friendly and spoke English.

So if you are off to France keep a Log!
 
I wonder what they deem acceptable. I have heard that they can fine you for doing it in pencil! But is one entry per watch enough or do they insist on hourly, and what data do you have to record?
 
blimmin annoying. A pencil will work in damp conditions whereas a ballpoint won't! The french have a long long list of regulations of what you must carry in terms of equipment etc which i am not at all sure they can/should enforce to foreign-registered vessels. However, they frequently do enforce, with spot fines - or a load of hassle or a wasted day if you don't pay up. £100 frexample for not having original (not copies) of regitration docs on board, the gits.
 
Plume de ma tante ...

one could mention to the french how the yanks spent squillions inventing a pen which would write upside down in space but the russians sent them up with a pencil. the french whose dislike of the americans is well known (even to a douane plod) will be much impressed by your rubbishing of the yanks and probably give you £100

hmmm .... this story can't be true as can't see plods asking for 148.567 euros monsewer, sil vous plate ....
 
I had friends also boarded last week who were given a full search. We came back last Thursday week and two French Naval / customs boats took a close look at us but didn't board

I don't keep a manual log, I mark up the chart with my position hourly in pencil and my ICS Navtex/NMEA repepeater is programmed to store position course and speed data hourly. Would this be sufficient I wonder?
 
Same as Blue Chip. I have always done half hourly plots on the chart. Didn't know that the French required a proper up to the minute log kept.
What ever next.
 
We too have been boarded offshore and searched, including looking at our log. However I think they are more interested in your overall itinerary rather than hour to hour positions, ie where you were last night and the day before etc and could you have been somwhere suspicious. Our Navman plotters both record and store ground tracks which can be displayed to show where we have been, but they don't show when. Our backup older Raymarine plotter records position at half hourly intervals but only over 24hrs I think and in any case now it is backup it isn't normally switched on! We do have a daily 'diary' log which gives the narratives but not the Lat/longs/times since the plotters cover those, but if doing a X-channel or longer route we do have a 'proper' log but the entries these days are very sparse, like start/finish log readings and times, eng hrs start and finish and not a lot else in between though there might be the odd plot marked on the paper chart via the Yeoman.
 
My Navtex prints out a paper position at defined intervals (I've set it to half-hourly) taken from the GPS. These not only provide a back up if the electrics go belly up, but can also be pasted into the logbook to save all that time consuming writing up. I keep a stick of sticky glue in the chart table for the purpose.
 
I've been to France 6 times in the last year and only been boarded once in Cherebourg...before the boat was painted....no name on the boat and rust everywhere....

They were very polite...i produced all my documents and everyone's passport...answered them in rusty french when they asked in English...searched everywhere (presumably for drugs which they didn't find)...

Their guns were unclipped incase i gave one of them a serious whack with a french loaf....I think they have every right to board any boat in french waters english flagged of not likewise with the english....

And my knees were knocking all the time
 
I guess it's all to do with the ( no longer ) new SOLAS V Regulations, which are international law. Like it or lump it....

If we can't be bothered to comply, then we have no beef when we are fined for breaking the law. Like or lump it.....

The info is readily available, and it's not difficult to comply.
 
I get 'inspected' nearly every year, last was in June in Granville. Sometimes they ring through to Cardiff to verifiy the Class 1 document. However looking at the log and insisting it is in pencil is a new one for me.
Surely the operational requirements and methods of ship operation are a matter for the government of where the vessel is registered and not the country the ship is in at any particular time as long as they are complying with IMO regs.
 
Yes, it is difficult to comply. The problem with SOLAS regs is that (like EU regs) they have to be incorporated into local law to become locally effective. So what you have to comply with is French interpretation of these regs, which will certainly be different from the British one - even if you knew what either of them were. And since you cant afford to argue the toss with a French customs man on the day, its also a matter of how that particular French customs man interprets French regs. A complete lottery in other words.
 
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