Moody 422/425 CE approval

[Laurence Brooks]

I understand that I need to obtain CE approval in order to import my 1989 M425 into the UK. How do I do this?

 

[Peter Wright]

Hi Laurence,

Sorry I didn't reply to this earlier, I missed it somehow, hopefully you have by now found the solution elsewhere.

CE approval , as I understand it, is based on compliance with the Recreational Craft Directive, of which the first edition was issued after your boat was built, so she will not have CE approval, but, in my mind doesn't need it, having been built before the concept of CE marking for yachts was dreamt up.

Actually, what you need for the UK is not CE marking but UKCA marking which would be based on compliance with the UK Recreational Craft Regulations (RCR) which, as far as I can establish are, in practice, the current issue of the EU RCD with a new title. These regs should have come into force on 31 December 2024 but recognition of the RCD and the CE mark has been extended more or less indefinitely as we don't employ enough civil servants to make this happen across the industries which were regulated this way in the EU. Why nobody bothered to estimate the regulatory work required of both industry and regulators across all industries before the Brexit vote is beyond the scope of this forum.

Sadly, the idea that a boat may have been built before the first RCD came into force is beyond the understanding of some officials, but other officials can be very helpful in this respect. I trust you can find a good official in UK HMRC to help you with the import of Blithe Spirit.

Peter.

 

[Laurence Brooks]

Hi Laurence,

Sorry I didn't reply to this earlier, I missed it somehow, hopefully you have by now found the solution elsewhere.

CE approval , as I understand it, it based on compliance with the Recreational Craft Directive, of which the first edition was issued before your boat was built, soshe will not have CE approval, but, in my mind doesn't need it, having been built before the concept of CE marking for yachtswas dreamt up.

Actually, what you need for the UK is not CE marking but UKCA marking which would be based on compliance with the UK Recreational Craft Regulations (RCR) which, as far as I can establish are, in practice, the current issue of the EU RCD with a new title. These regs should have come into force on 31 December 2024 but recognition of the RCD and the CE mark has been extended more or less indefinitely as we don't employ enough civil servants rpto make this happen across the industries which were regulated this way in the EU. Why nobody bothered to estimate the regulatory work required of both industry and regulators across all industries before the Brexit vote is beyond the scope of this forum.

Sadly, the idea that a boat may have been built before the first RCD came into force is beyond the understanding of some officials, but other officials can be very helpful in this respect. I trust you can find a good official in UK HMRC to help you with the import of Blithe Spirit.

Peter.

Hi Peter
Happy New Year
Thank you for looking into this matter for me and taking the time and effort to respond. I am happy to say that the head of the RYA Legal Department has responded with a favourable ruling that compliance with the 1998 RCD regulations is not required, much to my relief.
Thanks again for your support
Laurie

 

[Peter Wright]

Hi Laurie,

Happy New Year to you.

Glad you have resolved the issue. Re-reading my first reply, I see it was next to useless as the word "before" in the 2nd. line should have been "after" which rather changes the meaning. I have now corrected this with an edit.

I assume you will manage to get Returned Goods Relief and so avoid paying VAT again on bringing Blithe Spirit home to the UK. Once she is back here, it would be helpful to others if you were to write a brief summary of the process and hoops you had to jump through, particularly identifying any helpful contacts you found. It could be posted here or published in Compass as a guide to others wanting to do the same. It seems that, since the UK decided to bevome a third country with respect to the EU, there is a steady trickle of UK owned yachts returning home after a long period in the Med.

Peter.