Australian AMSA registered boat, which State registration to complement it?

[GILow]

Hi all,

I am soon to depart South Australian waters, destination unknown. I foresee a bit of East Coast Oz, a bit of Tassie, a bit the Pacific on my horizon, but my new plan is to have no plan at all, so who knows.

Boat registration in South Australia is pretty ugly, I just forked out AU$375 for the privilege of bouncing around the Gulf St Vincent for a year.

Once I leave South Australia I will have no land base, and I suppose I'll ask one of a my friends or family to serve as an impromptu mailbox for those few little bits of paperwork that still seem to insist that you must have house on dry land somewhere otherwise you don't actually exist and must be a figment of your own imagination.

I've checked each of the states, and it seems Victoria has the cheapest registration for a 12.85 meter boat, by a suspiciously large margin. That's kinda handy because the bulk of my family lives in Victoria, some of them by the water, so registering the boat to their houses would work well.

But I am wondering if I am missing something because is seems too good to be true at AU$87 per year, compared with something like AU$500 in QLD and Western Australia, $250 in NSW.

Also, just to be clear, there seems to be some argument that I can skip state rego altogether because of the AMSA rego, but regardless of the merits of that argument, I am not going there because one thing I fear more than fear itself is bureaucratic crap and a lack of state rego is just an invitation to play that game.

Ideas? Cautionary tales?

Matt

[44'cruisingcat]

The only thing I'd suggest is to check to see if the state it's registered in has any impact on your insurance. I was once told that for instance in NSW the stamp duty on insurance would eat up the difference in rego costs.

I'm not saying this is correct, but it couldn't hurt to check.

Otherwise, yeah register it where it's cheapest.

BTW, If your dinghy has bigger than 5hp, it needs to be registered to use it in NSW.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

The only thing I'd suggest is to check to see if the state it's registered in has any impact on your insurance. I was once told that for instance in NSW the stamp duty on insurance would eat up the difference in rego costs.

I'm not saying this is correct, but it couldn't hurt to check.

Otherwise, yeah register it where it's cheapest.

BTW, If your dinghy has bigger than 5hp, it needs to be registered to use it in NSW.

Both very good points, wouldn't have thought of the insurance premium for a start.

Yes, dink is currently 6 HP but probably about to become 10 HP so I'll check that cost too.

The whole lot used to be registered free of charge in Victoria under that old fiddle of applying in writing to the registrar and citing the AMSA rego, but I think that trick is long gone, and I wouldn't relish explaining it on an insurance claim anyway.


Thank you.

[JPA Cate]

Look at registry in the Northern Territory, Darwin.

Ann

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Look at registry in the Northern Territory, Darwin.

Ann

NT doesn't have boat rego or even licenses.

The trouble is, some maritime officers or water police won't accept "I'm legal for the NT" in say, NSW. I tried it with dinghy rego, which we didn't need in Qld.

The maritime guy said we either had to register the dinghy or get a smaller (or no) motor.

Of course some people do get away with it for years.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Look at registry in the Northern Territory, Darwin.

Ann

Holy crap!

"New to recreational boating

In the Northern Territory (NT) you don't need to hold a licence to operate a recreational boat.

You don't have to register your boat."

This from the NT state government web site. (https://nt.gov.au/driving/rego/fees/registration-fees)

Sounds like a recipe for success! Not!


Yeah-nah! That feels like a death-by-bureaucracy formula right there. Tell me, with your significant experience, do you relish the prospect of explaining to the NSW RMS guys why you don't have a registration on your boat?

Call me a chicken but...

[GILow]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

NT doesn't have boat rego or even licenses.

The trouble is, some maritime officers or water police won't accept "I'm legal for the NT" in say, NSW. I tried it with dinghy rego, which we didn't need in Qld.

The maritime guy said we either had to register the dinghy or get a smaller (or no) motor.

Of course some people do get away with it for years.

What he said! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I want to enjoy my life of freedom on the water without dreading the next pen pushing turnip with a sense of authority.

[mako]

Originally Posted by GILow

Once I leave South Australia I will have no land base, and I suppose I'll ask one of a my friends or family to serve as an impromptu mailbox

Check out sosmail.com.au as I used them for the last ten years while living overseas. It costs a bit of money but is worth it for their services. But I did not have family to rely on like you mentioned.

[Factor]

Australian Rego cannot negate the individual state rego requirements.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by makobuilders

Check out sosmail.com.au as I used them for the last ten years while living overseas. It costs a bit of money but is worth it for their services. But I did not have family to rely on like you mentioned.

Thank you for that link. You are right, not cheap, but not unreasonable either.

Frankly, paying them $200 year might be better for my mental health than trying to coach dad through scanning a letter so that I can read it online.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Factor

Australian Rego cannot negate the individual state rego requirements.

I think we all (mostly) agree on that. [emoji846]

[Ashed]

There are also other state laws, for example, If a boat is in Qld for longer than 3 months (I think) it must be registered in Qld.

If you were doing a slow cirmnavagion you may have to keep re-registering in every state (if you stay too long)

[spiv]

My boat has AMSA registration and Fremantle as home port, but since I am not in AU, I don't pay any state regio. Zilch!

When I get there I will worry about it.
You probably can stop paying state regio once you leave AU.

[Ramona]

If you happen to be a pensioner then you only pay 50% on rego etc in NSW. But you will need a postal address.

[Oceanride007]

Hi Matt, Reckon Post #11 Ashed has got it, Start off in Vic. If you have to comply further around the coast, and you can't beat it, change then. Not sure why but when booking space in Marina, they ask for it, also in Qld requirement is for fairly large lettering, so that the coast patrol aircraft can identify you, they still talk to you but.