Boat rego for boats over 12mts in Australia to Residents

[adventurebug]

Hi we have a Boat in Rio Dulce Guatemala, and would like to register it in Australia we are Residents not Nationals and the boat is over 12mts, any ideas out there to over come this issue ??

[SailingHarmonie]

It would help if you could explain what “the issue” you have is?

Just as an example, in the USA non-citizens can not document a vessel as the majority owners. Are you facing a similar problem?

[adventurebug]

well to answer you Sailing Harmonie the issue is that we as residents of Australia and our boat is over 12mts so you have to be a Australian National to register a boat over 12mts, (with AMSA for overseas sailing and bringing the boat back to OZ ) we are thinking now we will have to sell it to one of our sons as they are born in Australia, so that was our issue, I guess I can't see another way to do this, unless someone has any other ideas or experience

[SailingHarmonie]

In the US there is a way around this restriction in a case like this. I have no idea if it would work in Oz, but it’s worth looking into.

The workaround is this: the boat’s listed owner is a corporation. The corporation must have a majority voting ownership (50%+1) of citizens. In the US there are actually lawyers who will be the 51% listed owner, for a fee of course. That approach has always struck me as within the letter of the law but hardly in the spirit. Now having your children be the 51% owners of the corporation does seem a reasonable approach.

Assuming Australian law has such provisions…

Good luck, and be nice to your children!😄

[Reefmagnet]

Have you spoken directly to someone at AMSA? My personal experience is that they are very willing to provide advice and assistance in these matters. It's been a while since I've been through a similar process, but there are (IIRC) something like 64 shares allocated for the purpose of determining AU qualifying ownership. It may well be that the vessel does not need to be 100% Australian national owned to be AU registered. The biggest issue may be more likely to be the need to prove the vessel is actually fully owned by all parties listed by providing evidence of the vessel's ownership literally all the way back to the original owner in a format accepted by AMSA.

[skipperpete]

The AMSA website has all the information you need, including the forms regarding ownership and provenance. The major hurdle though is the import duty and Gst. Duty is 5% of the vessel value and that value can be a rubbery figure depending on a variety of factors.

[Miyalk]

Definitely talk to AMSA about it, they are very accomodating in my experience.