Marine Forum

Licensing laws

Anonymous user

27 June 2007 22:30:51

Joined: Unknown | Posts: Unknown

My family owns a RIB currently berthed in the port of Ibiza. I believe that the boat is Italian registered. We have valid insurance on the boat but nobody as of yet has any form of licensing. Under British law I believe that all licenses for simply using a boat for fun are voluntary. However I'm uncertain about the laws in Spain and which laws apply, whether it is the laws of the country of registraion or what? can anybody help?

Also what would happen with the skipper and passengers of the boat if it was inspected by the police?

Apparently the spanish police in Ibiza don't tend to stop boats flying a union jack. Does anybody know how true this is?

Spanish Boat Licensing laws

Anonymous user

28 June 2007 09:51:24

Joined: Unknown | Posts: Unknown

The Ministerio de Fomento is the Spanish government organisation responsible for, among other things, public buildings and works. It includes within it the Merchant Marine department and the Marine Safety Agency which, between them, are responsible for all aspects of safety at sea and the legalities involved. If you break maritime law, these are the people you will have to deal with. But, apart from being the upholders of the law, they also publish two immensely useful booklets to assist mariners.

One of these is the Guia Practica para la Nautica de Recreo (The Practical Guide to Pleasure Sailing) and the other is Seguridad en las Actividades Nauticas (Safer Water Sports).

The first deals with a multitude of topics, including maritime communications, safety and emergency procedures, survival techniques, environmental contamination, and obligatory documentation. It also has a statistical section and lists all the current and projected maritime rescue co-ordination centres. These presently exist in the south at Almeria, Algeciras, Tarifa, Cadiz and Huelva, and are planned for Malaga and Seville.

The second of the booklets concentrates, as its title indicates, on water sports safety, covering swimming, pleasure craft, windsurfing, diving, waterskiing, jet-skis and, finally, contamination. It also lists the rescue centre network and the maritime rescue fleet.

Both booklets are available in a variety of non-Spanish languages, including English, French and German, from most marina offices, chandlers and boat retailers.

Registration

In theory, everything with a motor or sails that goes on the water has to be registered. Again, in theory, if you have residence qualifications in Spain, you must, by law, register your boat in Spain. In order to do so, apart from the registration fees, which depend on the size of the boat, the owner is required to pay a 14% tax on the value of the boat - which explains why a lot of owners get round the law by registering their craft in a company name. This is perfectly legal, in the same way that tax avoidance is legal but tax evasion is not.
The Spanish authorities also insist that, if a boat has an onboard tender, that must be registered separately, whereas other countries consider the smaller craft to be an integral part of the whole and do not require separate payment.
If the owner has a permanent, legal, address in his/her country of origin, the simplest method of registration is to do it in that country. But the address must be legal - you cannot use a relative's address and claim it as your own. Any owner can, naturally, set up an offshore company in any of the tax havens which proliferate throughout the world. For foreigners resident in Andalucia, the obvious choice is Gibraltar, where there are a number of specialist companies who can facilitate all the paperwork and ensure that the legal avenues are properly followed.

Go check your local Ministerio de Fomento