A Sea Change
We decided that the challenges of insurance, the changes we are seeing in the Caribbean and it’s weather patterns meant that it was time to return to sailing in Europe where we can do shorter trips. We’ve seen the best of the region and loved it all but the increasing crime in many Islands coupled with burgeoning numbers of cruising boats, restrictions and increasing bureaucracy all conspired to make it time to go home. We also decided that the prospect of paying 20% tax on the full value of the boat and it’s contents on top of the cost of getting her across 4500 challenging ocean miles meant we would reluctantly have to sell our lovely boat and buy another in Europe.
It was not a decision we liked or looked forward to but we started the process by booking a call with a broker friend to go through options. Part way through the call Alex said “if you love this boat so much why are you selling her” so we explained about tax etc and he said “well you don’t have to pay 20% vat and you can ship her back for less than the cost of selling her”. There was a stunned silence at our end so he explained that now we are no longer in the EC, as British nationals we can take Seminole Wind into the EC for 18 months at a time on a temporary import license with no tax payable. Every 18 months we need to leave the EU for at least a day and the clock resets. For tax purposes the Channel Islands, Gibralter most of the former Yugoslavia, the Canaries and Turkey would all reset the clock. As long as we pop out for a while and don’t come into the UK - no tax - Eureka!!.
Long story short, Seminole Wind came to the UK 12 years ago on a yacht transport vessel and she is going to do it again in April next year. We will sail up to Florida from Guatemala, probably in time for Christmas. In January our nephew Shane, his wife and three kids are coming sailing, we will head over to the Bahamas for a while then back to Lauderdale to load SW onto a specially designed ship. Around 3 weeks later we will offload her in Belgium with a temporary import license and sail to Guernsey for at least one season before heading south.
The prospect of sailing the boat we have loved, that has looked after us and that we have invested so much in and being able to sail her again in our favourite sailing area has put a big wide smile back on our faces. We have a lot of organising to do, a mountain of paperwork no doubt but 9 years sailing in Caribbean has prepared us well for paperwork. The boat was built for Europe so its a simple task to switch power systems back and we don’t even have to pack. we simply step off the boat on the deck of the ship, fly back to Europe and then step back on board and go sailing.
The adventure continues.