I was evaluating the possibility of importing a sailboat from the UK to
Spain, but I'm appalled at the complexity of the paperwork and costs involved. This is a non-exhaustive list of the procedures involved:
- Obtain a temporary
permit at the nearest Spanish consulate. For that, you need to provide some sort of technical info about the ship (not sure what kind of certificates are required).
- Sail to
Spain.
- Obtain a seaworthiness certificate. For that, you must present a report by a certified naval
engineer detailing the characteristics of the
boat if she has no CE-marking (1000-3000€)
- Pay local
taxes (4% of value)
- Pass a technical
security inspection (it seems Spain is the only EU country with that requirement). For what I've read, the outcome greatly depends on the mood of the inspector. Also, it comprises both "dry" and "wet" inspections, and of course, hauling is paid for by the owner. The
inspection is valid for five years.
- Pay the
registration fees
So it's no wonder that many spaniards are fleeing to
flags like Belgium and
Netherlands, which have far more reasonable requirements. In fact, there are already many boats owned by Spaniards, moored in Spanish
marinas, but under belgian flag.
In my case, I'm thinking about
buying in UK, but many interesting boats are unregistered, and they cannot be legally sailed into another country's territorial waters. One possibility would be to register in Isle of Man, which doesn't require being a resident. However, among the required docs a "Class Certificate" is mentioned, which must be issued by a Classification Society (Bureau Veritas, Lloyd and the like). The official website is not very clear about this, though it seems to be just a simple thing to certify
LOA and tonnage. But it wouldn't be fun to get stuck on IoM because of some bureaucratic issue, or having to pay a costly
survey.
Does anyone any practical experience with this? Thanks in advance!