WHY AREN'T WE SAILING?????
I know a lot of you have been wondering why we are not yet sailing?? We've been here in France and bought the boat on the 18th of May and it's now nearly the end of June. WTF is going on?????
Well the boat buying process went smoothly enough but then we had to start the Registration process. We are registering Phantomas in Australia and we were aware it would take maybe a few weeks but not this long.
Basically the application for Boat registration with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) requires :
The application is also a two step process with the initial application and then the "marking" of the boat requiring an official metal plate affixed to the boat with measurement details etc.
We mailed away the documents by express post on the 31st of May, paying 65 Euros for an expediated service. We then, over the next 10 days, tracked the documents as they left France, went to Germany, Holland, UK and then USA before arriving in Australia on 10th June.
In the meantime, thinking the worst that the documents were lost and that we may need to start all over again, we contacted AMSA for advice. We were only then told about "Provisional Registration" which although involved the same forms as above plus one more form would get us out on the water quicker as the "marking" can be done over the following 6 month. So we then sent that application off to AMSA (this time by normal mail, same time but only 9 euro).
Our original application arrived in Australia but wasn't processed until the 20 June and we were then informed that the Builders Certificate needed for the application had to be an original!! The boat was built in 2001 for heavens sake. In leu of an original we could do a Statutory Declaration, easy enough. We then had to find a Public Notary (JP type of person) to witness the document. This may seem an easy enough process but when you add in the language barrier, the small town we are based in and the fact we now have bikes as our "Car" getting the document witnessed became harder.
We managed to get a notary to sign the document while we were on our trip away and have now mailed that back to AMSA.
Meanwhile, on Monday 27th June we received notification that our Provisional Registration has been approved!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, but we are still waiting for the original document for Provisional Registration to arrive (hopefully Monday 4th), our mainsail to be returned after having to get some chafing repaired and our VHF & AIS to be programmed with our MMSI number so we can get launched into the water on Tuesday 5th.
If you are still with me, congratulations, you may have some appreciation of the frustrations of the last month. However, with that in mind we are very aware how lucky, blessed, super excited and grateful we are for being in France and about to have this amazing adventure ahead of us.
Well the boat buying process went smoothly enough but then we had to start the Registration process. We are registering Phantomas in Australia and we were aware it would take maybe a few weeks but not this long.
Basically the application for Boat registration with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) requires :
- a number of forms to be completed by us as new owners
- a deregistration form from the previous owner this was in Luxenbourg
- build certificates from the boat builder
- the sale notice
The application is also a two step process with the initial application and then the "marking" of the boat requiring an official metal plate affixed to the boat with measurement details etc.
We mailed away the documents by express post on the 31st of May, paying 65 Euros for an expediated service. We then, over the next 10 days, tracked the documents as they left France, went to Germany, Holland, UK and then USA before arriving in Australia on 10th June.
In the meantime, thinking the worst that the documents were lost and that we may need to start all over again, we contacted AMSA for advice. We were only then told about "Provisional Registration" which although involved the same forms as above plus one more form would get us out on the water quicker as the "marking" can be done over the following 6 month. So we then sent that application off to AMSA (this time by normal mail, same time but only 9 euro).
Our original application arrived in Australia but wasn't processed until the 20 June and we were then informed that the Builders Certificate needed for the application had to be an original!! The boat was built in 2001 for heavens sake. In leu of an original we could do a Statutory Declaration, easy enough. We then had to find a Public Notary (JP type of person) to witness the document. This may seem an easy enough process but when you add in the language barrier, the small town we are based in and the fact we now have bikes as our "Car" getting the document witnessed became harder.
We managed to get a notary to sign the document while we were on our trip away and have now mailed that back to AMSA.
Meanwhile, on Monday 27th June we received notification that our Provisional Registration has been approved!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, but we are still waiting for the original document for Provisional Registration to arrive (hopefully Monday 4th), our mainsail to be returned after having to get some chafing repaired and our VHF & AIS to be programmed with our MMSI number so we can get launched into the water on Tuesday 5th.
If you are still with me, congratulations, you may have some appreciation of the frustrations of the last month. However, with that in mind we are very aware how lucky, blessed, super excited and grateful we are for being in France and about to have this amazing adventure ahead of us.
