Add't'l Reporting Reqts for Foreign Yachts in US

[Hud3]

Additional Reporting Requirements for Foreign Yachts in US
I was really disappointed to learn that reporting requirements for foreign-flagged yachts cruising in the U.S. have been racheted up a notch by Homeland Security. Cruising seems to be attracting more and more Red Tape these days.

Important - Attention All Foreign Flagged Cruising Craft
Published: February 4, 2008 at the Salty Southeaster Cruisers Net at:
Cruisers' Net - Eastern Florida

[David_Old_Jersey]

I will concede that I have never intended to visit the US of A by boat, and indeed cannot ever see me visiting the States again - as well as other places to see / things to do (not just by boat!) a large reason is due to a perceived uncertainty about what the ever changing rules are (this being a case in point), the cost / aggravation of trying to comply......with the clincher being the fact that folk in the States do not p#ss around when dealing with "suspect foreigners".

I am sure that the judgement has been made that some loss of business is an acceptable price to pay for feeling safer, and as it is not my country who am I to complain. Just seems sad.

The price of gasoline is not measured simply in Dollars...........

[slomotion]

I'm incensed. I was gonna move my foreign flagged boat to a different marina in Ft. Lauderdale - you know, so I could get a better angle for my RPG, but now I don't dare try it. Hmmm - maybe I could just run up a U.S. flag? Never mind.

This kind of nonsense does nothing to enhance security. It doesn't even inconvenience people who pose a real threat; it inconveniences only those people who are least likely to pose a threat; and it simply invites retaliation.

[ssullivan]

Yeah, this is no good at all. From a US resident perspective, it only increases the likelyhood of other countries enacting similar laws.

"Well, the US does it so we can too..."

What is really odd is that our country *used to be* relatively free of red tape in general (as compared to say many countries in Europe). Bit by bit, this is changing.

[Celestialsailor]

Now this brings a bit of a dilemma for myself...I was a Canadian citizen who bought a vessel in the US and documented it as Canadian. A year later became a US citizen. Would I still have to check in? Is the law for the foriegn flagged vessel or more for a Foriegner with a foriegn flagged vessel?
Funny thing about all this. Saudi Arabia has bought a number of our ports. You remember Saudi Arabia don't you? That's where almost all of the Terrorist form 9/11 came from!

[waterworldly]

HERE'S EVEN MORE IRONY: While Homeland Security was monitering the large marinas in Miami to make sure that no one changed their slip without saying Motherland May I, 35 Cubans illegally were dropped off in Key Biscayne by speedboat and became instant citizens! GREAT border protection guys!

[Southern Star]

There had been a thread about these changes earlier: it is, of course, simply another example of Homeland Security making it 'appear' that they are doing something to secure your borders when the real risks continue. Since terrorists are more likely to use trucks or cars, a more logical step would have been to require visitors to check in as they drive from one city or town to another. Hey, that sounds like the land of the free - a shining beacon to the rest of the world of how wonderful life can be in a free society, rather than a police state. Remind you of anything? "Ze paypaws - show me ze paypaws pleese!"

Anyone else think that this sort of over-reaction is exactly what the terrorists were hoping for? Its perfect, really, since it will not interfere in the least with their modus operandi - afterall, the vast majority of cargo containers entering the US by land, air or sea are not inspected. Of course, inspections would slow down international trade - a.k.a. the flood of inferior products from China and Korea that are currently decimating your economy.

As a sailor on Lake Ontario I used to cross to the United States in my boat several times a summer, but have reluctantly decided that from now on that I will give it a pass. I will likely still have to enter the United States on my trip to the Caribbean next year, but will certainly do so only until I can get a good weather window for a departure from NYC to Bermuda and then parts south. Sadly, I somehow suspect that terrorists will not be similary deterred.

Lattitude 38 seems to devote an incredible amount of space to protesting the red tape involved for foreign (read U.S.) vessels cruising in Mexico. Well, it is now a paperwork paradise compared to cruising under these regulations. Why doesn't Homeland Security just post signs in every port reading, 'Visiting Yachts KEEP OUT!'

We in Canada can do nothing to change this - it is (rightly) a domestic matter for your own politicians. But Americans could write their Senators and Congressmen to protest this terrible (and ultimately inneffective) precedent for the rest of world. I hope the Canadian and Mexican governments do not enact similar draconian laws in retaliation (and I suspect that at least for now, reason will still prevail). But the world has just become a much less friendly place for those who wish to be international cruisers.

Brad

[Pblais]

Since terrorists are more likely to use trucks or cars, a more logical step would have been to require visitors to check in as they drive from one city or town to another.

There is no logic required for a terrorist. When your goal is to create chaos it's not like there is only one way to do it. Do anything anywhere.

There is no logic to the Department of Homeland security. When your goal is to stop terrorists there is nothing that can't be done. There is no argument against anything that might be done. If you are against them then you must be in favor of the terrorists.

Random acts of stupidity vs. conscious acts of stupidity.