What is you opinion?...

Nautibusiness

Nautibusiness

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This has been done a thousand times, but the replies are always interesting.



I was browsing the various sales websites earlier today for one of my favourite boats.

It's actually a catamaran built in the US with only a few ever finding their way to Europe.

Anyway, I found one.
She was my favourite model, but the ad wasn't enormously encouraging as whilst she was relatively new she had suffered storm damage and was being sold with out engines.

Now for the but I am asking about.

The advert stated that she was a US import (now lying Scotland) and was being sold as a project and hadn't been CE marked.

To give the broker / dealer their credit, they had clearly made the point about her not being RCD compliant.

My question to my boating bretheren.
I know my own thoughts, but what are yours?

Is it OK to sell this boat without CE marking her so long as it is made clear to the purchaser that she is "a project" and requires CE marking?

Is it illegal to sell her or use her until she is CE marked full stop?

Tom
 
It is illegal to put her into use without the CE mark. As she has no engines and a guess isnt float worthy in her current state she can be sold without the CE mark as she can't be put into use. However, once you had finished the repairs etc you would have to CE mark the craft.

That's my interpretation. It does also matter how she was imported. If she was imported as a project - i.e. not a complete boat, then CE marking wouldnt have been required. If she was imported as a complete boat, then technically it is the importers responsibility to ensure the vessel is CE marked prior to first use, not the person who buys it.
 
I believe that the key point here is whether the boat has been put into service or on the market. So, yes it is illegal to put her into service ie. use her until she is CE marked. I think whether she can be legally sold is a more difficult issue because the seller could argue that, in her current condition, she's not actually strictly speaking a boat in that she probably can't float and has no means of propulsion!
If what you're asking is whether it's safe for you to buy her without some retribution from a faceless bureacrat, I don't think you should worry. There are no CE police as such and the only situation where I can imagine anyone would bother checking whether the vessel has a CE cert is if you put to sea in her and have an accident. Obviously, if you do buy her and repair her for your own use or for sale, then she would need to be CE marked
 
I know when the very first Mustangs arrived with the chap (can't remember the name) in Lymington back in 2003/4(?) when he tried to set up a dealership the first weren't CE marked, but he knew his obligations to get them done prior to sale.
 
blueglass said:
applies to boats buiit/commisioned after 16 June 1998. relax!
Click to expand...

I dont want to be unduely picky, but it actually applies to all craft first put into use in the EU after 1998.

So if you buy a 1980 boat that has lived its life in the USA, and bring it into the EU today, it must conform to the RCD and be CE marked. Likewise boats from Norway, or Africa or Australia etc etc. The year of construction/comissioning is not a guarantee that the boat is excluded from the regulation.
 
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