Thursday, January 28, 2010

Registration Frustration

Trying to wrap up the Canadian registration today and it really is a process designed for Canadian built commercial vessels.  I'm sure it all works fine for fishing boats on the coast or for the big tankers on the lake/seaway, but for an itsy-bitsy catamaran in the Caribbean that had the audacity to be built offshore, the beaurocracy is living up to its name.

Neither of the two bills of sale that Fountaine-Pajot have supplied seem to be what Transport Canada is looking for although they haven't been able to articulate what is wrong with them.  One of them is signed and notarized on the TC form itself so I am going to send the original (praying they will return it) and hopefully convince them that this is it.  I also need to lay hands on the original builder's certificate which has not yet appeared from F-P so that is the next paper-chase.

Finally, the "Attestation de Juage" from the French Direction Generale Des Douanes et Droits Indirect Interregion de Bordeaux (say that 10 times fast) does not meet the requirements for a Measurement of Tonnage.  TC requires that the measurement is done by one of their certified measurers but when I called one listed for Europe, they laughed at me and told me that the ships they measure are used to transport boats like ours.  Now that Mowzer is almost in the Caribbean, I'm going to investigate one of the BVI measurers to see if he can go to the USVI to complete this requirement.

The good story in all of this is that John has already obtained a USVI registration for us so the boat can be brought into port.  We just need to get the Canadian side completed for our own ownership requirements.

Nice of the government to have cashed our cheque already though - hope they're enjoying the fun as much as I am.

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