SAMSA advice

[rodrigjp]

Hi there,

Need some advise. I just bought a 10yr old yacht that was previously registered at SAMSA under name AMBER. On trying to change the yacht ownership, SAMSA informed us that we have to change original yacht name as there is another yacht that uses the name ??? SAMSA don't seem to understand that the yacht name carries value and changing names is tantamount to having "Titanic" renamed to "Titanic 1" or "Ferrari" changed to "Ferrari 1". Fact is it was already registered as AMBER why does a change of ownership invoke a name change. Specifically does SAMSA have a legal right to bully us to do this ? The fact that SAMSA may have allowed this situation to happen in the first place seems to allude them.

Can I have a yacht registered as "AMBER 1" but leave the Yacht name on the hull as "AMBER" ( iow yacht "AMBER" registered as "AMBER 1" ) ?

On the subject of SAMSA, since buying the yacht I have been forking out hard earned buck after buck for tons of supposedly very important government papers (single ply) and seems as if SAMSA continues exploring new ways to exploit recreational yachties like me. Is there a way that I can get rid of them ? I'd appreciate some advice....

[svrevelations]

We've had a similar naming experience with SAMSA and in the end we had to change our yacht name "Revelations" to "Revelation 1". There was another boat called "Revelation" and our argument that "Revelations" is different to the other boat and is no worse than "Revelation 1" carried zero weight with them. Their rules seems arbitrary, made up by the individual in charge and at times completely illogical. One can contest the situation in Court but our attorneys advised us that we will be barking at the moon.

There is something wrong with the so-called important government papers you have to buy!? All the application forms and papers from SAMSA are free and there are no other "important" government papers you need to buy.

By South African law, the name on the yacht must be the same name as your registration papers, ie; "Amber 1" - this is what is required by SAMSA. In fact, they want photographs which will show your registered name on the hull. How relevant this is in real life, I could not tell you. What happens after submitting the photographs to SAMSA - you tell me.

With SAMSA, you are required to permanently fix a carving plate to the boat which will have your proper registered boat name. We also seriously consider the possibility to show "Revelations" on the hulls whilst the carving plate shows the correct name as "Revelation 1". We were strongly advised against this by a number of people on the basis that this might confused and complicate matters.

Also bear in mind that you only need to be SAMSA registered if you intend sailing in International waters. If not, you then only need to register at SA Sailing.

[Jim Cate]

A hint for posters: if you insist on using acronyms like SAMSA, it would help most of us understand what the hell you were on about if you had your location as part of your signature or profile.

I for one was clueless. Fortunately, Revalations let the cat out of the bag with the reference to South African law!

And these naming idiosyncrasies can drive you up the wall, wherever you may be from!

Cheers,

Jim

[rodrigjp]

Thank you Revelations ! You saved me a lot of time. I was actually thinking of fighting this (gatvol of gvt institutions treating me like a wealthy 2 year old thief if you get my drift.) but who was I kidding. Perhaps I will get a small reprisal by making the "1" in "Amber 1" a minute font size ))).

Many thks
JP

@ JIM. Apologies mate SAMSA stands for South African Maritime Authority. Besides encumbering recreational yachties like myself (who one day dream of sailing the world of course!) I cant for the life of me see what other value they offer to recreational sailors other than to make it difficult for us to enjoy our sport/ hobby. Apology re acronym.