We Bought a Boat / Corporation from Guernsey

[Meck]

Hi,

A question for the offshore visitors of foreign ports...

We bought a corporation from Guernsey (Basically Great Britain) which included our sailing catamaran. We are US citizens with US passports, we are planing a long term cruise with many foreign ports in the Western Caribbean on our agenda. Our paperwork is in order, issued by the management company in Guernsey stating that we are the managers of said corporation and the sailing vessel.

The question: Will we have problems checking in and out because of the country discrepancy between our passports and the boats country of registry?

Cheers,
Meck

[bewitched]

No - there is no relationship between the your nationality and the country that you register the boat in.

My boat's registered in a diferent country than my nationality. Never been a problem.

Think about the problems that would be caused if three quarters of the worlds shipping fleet suddenly had to find Panamanian captains

[s/v Moondancer]

Never a problem with a similar setup in the last two years...Caribbean to Canada/US and back to Trinidad, a total of 30+ immigration encounters.

In the US you need a cruising certificate (good for a year) for the foreign boat, even though you have US passports, but geting it is takes less than an hour and about $20-30 when you visit customs/immigration/homeland security.

[barnakiel]

Not likely unless you sail to some sort of sick country. Any nationality skipper/owner can sail any nationality (flag) boat. Make sure you are clearly marked as owners or skippers in the registration papers. Make sure you do not overstay whatever the time limit given to your boat in any legislation.

b.