Hi all
I'm a British citizen, I bought a
boat here in
California last year and have valid DMV
registration and title. The
registration needs to be renewed every two years to be valid.
This October, I'm planning to sail south to
Mexico,
cruise central America and then
head out across the Pacific. Ideally, I'd like to deregister the
boat as American and register on Part I UK register, thinking that it will raise fewer eyebrows and cause less trouble if the boat and I are both British.
However, the Part I register needs a tonnage
survey performed by an approved RYA measurer, and I suspect they are going to be hard to come by in
California. I can get a provisional Part I registration if the boat is due into the UK within 3 months, which it's not. Part III (Small Ships Register) is not an option for me since I'm resident in the
USA.
I've come to the conclusion that there's no "official" way for me to register the boat as being a British vessel... unless I use a friend /
family address for the Part III SSR.
1) Will I have problems clearing in and out of anywhere if my boat is not the same nationality?
2) The boat is not USCG registered. Will this cause problems overseas?
Assuming I don't go down the USCG registration
route (can I even do that as a British citizen?), I'll need to renew California DMV registration in April 2015, and who knows where I'll be then. Hopefully half way to the
Marquesas. Has anyone else sailed
Mexico > Pacific >
New Zealand with a state-registered vessel and had problems?
While typing this I think I'm going to go down the Part III SSR
route, and use a friend's address in the UK for handling paperwork. Until the CA DMV registration runs out, the boat will technically be registered both in the US and the UK when I enter Mexico in October. What's the best
documentation to use?