Who can board my boat

[BlueJasper]

All this recent talk about E borders and the extra resource being thrown at it got me thinking. Who legally can board my boat in UK waters without my permission and what paperwork can they demand to see? Also what powers do they have if I do not have the appropriate paperwork on board?

 

[rubberduck]

Anyone bigger than you lol

 

[oceanfroggie]

All this recent talk about E borders and the extra resource being thrown at it got me thinking. Who legally can board my boat in UK waters without my permission and what paperwork can they demand to see? Also what powers do they have if I do not have the appropriate paperwork on board?

Customs have the right at any time, without any reason, and without a search warrant. Customs can demand anything and arrest on the spot. Police need a search warrant unless you invite them on board.

 

[Rivers & creeks]

If you are displaying an ensign then any commissioned officer in any of the services (regular or reservist) can board your yacht for the purposes of verifying your right to display the ensign.

 

[l'escargot]

In UK waters they can demand to see any paperwork they like, but you do not have to carry any apart from maybe your radio licence. Probably about the only thing they can actually pursue you to produce is proof of VAT status.

 

[Searush]

UK Borders Agency can apparently board at any time, no warrant required. And as they may be armed I wouldn't recommend resistance - altho' it will make good newspaper copy.

 

[epervier]

All this recent talk about E borders and the extra resource being thrown at it got me thinking. Who legally can board my boat in UK waters without my permission

Anyone with a loaded AK47, who is prepared to use it

 

[burgundyben]

I hope all these people dont turn up at once!

 

[Who]

I always figured Catherine Zeta Jones could board my boat if she really wanted to.

I would be Ok with that.

 

[mjf]

More like who can enter my home......... HMC&E can at any time

 

[Nautorius]

Well if you are in British Gibraltar waters then only the RGP and RN. If the Spanish try to board you must let off a distress flare and call on Ch16 for help! This is the advice from the Govt!

Life seems more simple down here....we used to have central reporting berths for when leaving and returning but this was too complicated so now the Marina you go to does this. No E Borders, no rubbish rules just suprisingly simple. Do nothing wrong, report back in and all will be well. Do something wrong, not report back in and all hell brakes loose.

Paul

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

>>>
Well if you are in British Gibraltar waters then only the RGP and RN. If the Spanish try to board you must let off a distress flare and call on Ch16 for help! This is the advice from the Govt!
>>>

Be more entertaining to hist the DSC button and give "piracy" as the reason. It would ping the Spanish authorities who could end up chasing each other

 

[BlueJasper]

So just for fun, if I do get followed and decide to floor it how would they initially try and stop me. Blue lights and hand signals or show me their weapons!

 

[Searush]

So just for fun, if I do get followed and decide to floor it how would they initially try and stop me. Blue lights and hand signals or show me their weapons!

I understand that standing orders are a shot across the bow. If they realy belive you are up to something dodgy, they have the ability & probably the authority to sink you. How are you going to argue? Come back & haunt them?

 

[nonitoo]

Have a look at

http://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/en...isingNews&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=oct09

for the latest from the RYA on the subject of aggressive boarding by the UKBA.

Tom

 

[BlueJasper]

That RYA article makes interesting reading and is quite alarming. If 4 blokes in a black unmarked car did the same on the road would you pull over - I doubt it, you would floor it. A bit OTT for leisure boaters in the Solent i feel.

 

[Ifraser]

not quite a warrant...

Customs have the right at any time, without any reason, and without a search warrant. Customs can demand anything and arrest on the spot. Police need a search warrant unless you invite them on board.

Just to avoid any confusion so that no-one gets into a row that they needn't have... the police don't actually have to have a warrant in the sense of a piece of paper but they do need to have reasonable grounds to suspect that you may be up to somehting. Its the same stop and search power exercisable on land... If they have "reasonable grounds to suspect" they can search you and your vessel. What those grounds can be is debateable. But like I said just to avoid getting into a fight with the police don't go around thinking that they must produce a paper warrant... the difference with the police from customs is that they can't just board for no reason but providing they have the grounds ( and it doesn't need to be proof.. just a suspicion) then they can also board.

Having said that the issue here seems to be the aggressive nature of the boardings that is rubbing people up the wrong way and I would agree that regardless of the their powers manners cost nothing unless they need to act fast to prevent loss of evidence which probably wouldn't be the case for routine checking... cheers Iain

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Just to avoid any confusion so that no-one gets into a row that they needn't have... the police don't actually have to have a warrant in the sense of a piece of paper but they do need to have reasonable grounds to suspect that you may be up to somehting. Its the same stop and search power exercisable on land... If they have "reasonable grounds to suspect" they can search you and your vessel. What those grounds can be is debateable. But like I said just to avoid getting into a fight with the police don't go around thinking that they must produce a paper warrant... the difference with the police from customs is that they can't just board for no reason but providing they have the grounds ( and it doesn't need to be proof.. just a suspicion) then they can also board.

Having said that the issue here seems to be the aggressive nature of the boardings that is rubbing people up the wrong way and I would agree that regardless of the their powers manners cost nothing unless they need to act fast to prevent loss of evidence which probably wouldn't be the case for routine checking... cheers Iain

But in all cases they have to identify themselves. The problem here is the boarding of vessels without asking permission or identifying themselves. If they tried that with the wrong person they could well find a boathook in their face.

They seem to adopting classic tactics to overpower yet they aren't actually overpowering. Any streetwise person, police and armed forces especially, knows the score - if you go in hard you have to overpower and restrain them as quickly as possible.

It's frightening because of the incompetence as much as anything else.

 

[Duster]

So just for fun, if I do get followed and decide to floor it how would they initially try and stop me. Blue lights and hand signals or show me their weapons!

We did just that a few years ago, in a big twin engine RIB. The customs started following us just N of Jura, they had made no signal to stop but were probably just having a look. The RIB was brand new and carried no name so I just hit both trottles and had a bit of fun. They did reasonable at keeping up but were gradually slipping back and chickened out when we cut through the Grey Dogs with a good tide running. Cheered up a dull day.
mikej

 

[Searush]

We did just that a few years ago, in a big twin engine RIB. The customs started following us just N of Jura, they had made no signal to stop but were probably just having a look. The RIB was brand new and carried no name so I just hit both trottles and had a bit of fun. They did reasonable at keeping up but were gradually slipping back and chickened out when we cut through the Grey Dogs with a good tide running. Cheered up a dull day.
mikej

I'd be surprised if they didn't radio your description to shore based personnel. I would expect that your arrival at destination will have been observed & your ID known quite quickly. Had you not been a local boat & known people I would guess you would have had a shore raid.

Or perhaps you are right and all drug or people importers need to do is buy a fast boat to avoid capture?