Don't you just love Customs...

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Got in last night 19th Aug at 8pm and hit the pub for a few beers..

Did you pay Duty on those beers? I can call Customs if you want....

[Blue Skye]

Holy shyte at that wind gen!!! Glad you made it to the pub

[Factor]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

The Garcia 45 is such a beautiful boat. I don't think they are making them any more though. Hasn't Garcia gone out of business?

Garcia are part of the group that builds Garcia monos, Allures monos and Outremer Catamarans

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Here's the Garcia 45 I delivered from Marseilles to Chatham,UK..
Sailed on the 26th of July.. stopped in Soller 1/2 a day.. Sotogrande 1 night.. Gib 1 night.. Fig da Foz 2 nights then L'Aber Wrach, France for 2 nights.. courtesy of Customs cutter...lol
Got in last night 19th Aug at 8pm and hit the pub for a few beers..

Nice ride

[monte]

Well done Phil

[Jim Cate]

Geeze, Phil, what were you doing on a class vessel like that? I've always thought the GArcias were good looking, and the only Allure that I've seen was, to a less polished degree, handsome as well.

Nice boats... shows that the Froggies can do something other than AWBs when they try!

So, what next, mate? Ya otta get another ride to Oz. The bad guys have likely forgotten you by now, & we'd like to see you.

Cheers,

Jim

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Blue Skye

Holy shyte at that wind gen!!! Glad you made it to the pub

Thats not a wind generator. Thats a rotor stabiliser.

[Sybarite]

Originally Posted by avb3

How is 13 miles of the coast territorial waters? Or is the boat flagged French?

Just wondering about the jurisdictional reason they could "invite" you to their party.

In France there is a 10 mile territorial limit. However, Customs have a right of pursuit up to twice that distance if you are sailing out of French waters.

In the present case the OP had cleared out of Ushant and had therefore been in French waters.

It is perhaps less known that you can be intercepted anywhere on the oceans if the authorities have reasonable cause to suspect you of participating in a certain defined list of illiicit operations : piracy, drug running, human trafficking etc

[Hydra]

There are 2 other possible explanations:

1- Boatman's position was in error by more than one mile .

2- French territorial waters are not defined with reference to shore but to "straight baselines" between offlying rocks. In the Ushant / Aber Wrac'h area, the straight baseline goes from the north point of Keller island (just N of Ushant) to Corn Carhai lighthouse then to Île Vierge lighthouse. Corn Carhai is more than 1.5 mile from shore. And I checked in the French Sailing Directions, the distance from the baseline to the outer limit of French territorial waters is 12 NM.

When I was boarded last year by British Customs, they made me plot a position with GPS on my own chart and check that the distance to shore was less than 12 NM, to remove any possibility for contesting their right to search the boat.

Alain

[avb3]

Originally Posted by Sybarite

In France there is a 10 mile territorial limit. However, Customs have a right of pursuit up to twice that distance if you are sailing out of French waters.

In the present case the OP had cleared out of Ushant and had therefore been in French waters.

It is perhaps less known that you can be intercepted anywhere on the oceans if the authorities have reasonable cause to suspect you of participating in a certain defined list of illiicit operations : piracy, drug running, human trafficking etc

It was my impression you could be boarded by an enforcement agency of the same flag as your vessel or with the permission of the flagged state.

It was my further impression that under UNCLOS no vessel could be stopped outside of territorial waters. Note the US is one of the few who are not a signator to this, although the older concept of freedom of the seas still applies.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Hydra]

I found the text of UNCLOS there: http://www.un.org/depts/los/conventi...s/unclos_e.pdf
It says:

Article 33
Contiguous zone
1. In a zone contiguous to its territorial sea, described as the contiguous zone, the coastal State may exercise the control necessary to:
(a) prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea;
(b) punish infringement of the above laws and regulations committed within its territory or territorial sea.
2. The contiguous zone may not extend beyond 24 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.

Then, it would be OK for French Customs to board and check a yacht within 24 NM from shore. UNCLOS doesn't give permission to coastal states for controlling foreign ships in the EEZ (200 NM from shore) for customs reasons.

I didn't find any mention of boarding a ship outside of the EEZ.

Alain

[bil56]

a boat of this type disappeared / stolen? in Med recently
this explains that ...