Alan, I have recently bought a Westerly Windrush in
Greece, from a Swedish owner. I got
advice from the RYA about
registration and foresaw problems with
history similar to yours, so just went online and registered the boat anew with any reference to any previous ownership in the UK (which I believed but had no details of. The Swedish ownership was not up to date with
registration in
Sweden apparently not
current since a few years ago.
My attitude is that all this bureaucracy is ridiculous , it keeps jobsworths in a paid position of inflated importance and I resent having anything to do with even the SSR. What business is it of theirs if I choose to keep a piddling little boat in Greek waters which not even the Greeks are interested in? I did it though, because I needed
insurance and the insurers wanted to know that the boat was registered.
I think if you had filled the forms in and treated it as new registration, they would have been happy to register you as the owner, no matter how old the boat.
In the end , registration is not even proof of ownership, although the authorities in
Greece tend to accept it a some sort of proof of a responsible and bona fide attitude as well as prima facie proof of ownership..