REGISTRATION
COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA Commonwealth of Dominica is proud to offer yacht owners commercial and private, the opportunity to join an International Yacht Registry. No Tonnage Tax and No size restrictions are some of the privileges. The length of registration periods can be customised and special registration offers exist for three or five years registrations. Registering a vessel under the Commonwealth of Dominica is efficient, straightforward and cost effective. Established in 2010, The Dominica Consulate in Athens, provides guidance and assistance to the local and the International Yacht Community with regards to vessel registration, mortgage recordation, forming Dominica business entities and the renowned Dominica Citizenship by Investment Program. For more details Tel:+30 6932 488888
www.dominicaconsulategreece.com
VESSELS CHANGE FLAGS FOR MANY REASONS AND WITH THE ADOPTION OF DIFFERING INDUSTRY STANDARDS SOME YACHTS THAT ARE UNABLE OR UNWILLING TO COMPLY HAVE SOUGHT OTHER FLAGS
in crime, offering substandard working conditions, and negatively impacting the environment. Other ships seek out an FoC which offers measurement rules that reduce the certified gross register tonnage in order to reduce subsequent port of call dock dues. Proving that even the much praised Red Ensign can also be termed a FoC on occasions, one passenger ship company switched all of its ships to fly the flag of Bermuda which, among other considerations, enabled its captains to marry couples at sea because they considered that weddings at sea were a lucrative and therefore profitable market. If you do not want to think of the Red Ensign as a FoC then ask yourself this question: Why are Italian marinas filled with so many Italian flagged small yachts registered in London? The answer is they are left alone unmolested and are unchecked by anyone.
The somewhat contentious term ‘flag of convenience’ has been used since the 1950s but you can trace its history back a little before that. The practice of ships being registered in a foreign country dates back to the 1920s when shipowners in the USA seeking to serve alcohol to passengers during Prohibition began to register their ships in Panama. They soon began to perceive the advantages in terms of avoiding taxes and increasingly restrictive regulations and continued to register their ships in what they began to refer to as tax havens. As US legislation began to be applied to wages paid to American seafarers the practice gathered momentum and Panama was quickly joined by others keen to get their
hands on the owners’ cash and registries popped up in some of the most unlikely places including perhaps the most famous of all: Liberia.
The continued use of open registries steadily increased into the 1960s, and Panama and Liberia were joined by the Marshall Islands, Honduras, Belize, Cyprus and Singapore.
The dominance of the British Red Ensign as the flag of quality began to fade as fleets of ships left the registry seeking a more convenient flag under which to sail.
Despite offering the protection of the British Royal Navy, the Red Ensign was, until that time, recognised globally for its maintenance of high standards, maritime safety and the welfare standards of seafarers. Now the number of superyachts flying the red duster out numbers the Royal Navy ships by a factor of about 14 to one.
In the late 1960s, British Overseas Territories, the likes of Hong Kong, Gibraltar, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, began to offer advantages to ship owners and their flags became very popular and the beginnings of what we now know as the Red Ensign Group began to form.
RED ENSIGN GROUP
The Red Ensign Group (REG) is a group of British Shipping Registers. It is made up
from the United Kingdom, together with the Crown Dependencies of the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. The UK Overseas Territories of Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, St Helena and the Turks & Caicos Islands are also members and each operate their own shipping registers from their own jurisdiction.
Between them they produce and maintain the REG Yacht Code with the Cayman Islands acting as Secretariat for that Code. The flags work closely together and have a specialist group of yacht policy members from each Administration to ensure the Code is consistently applied and is kept up to date. They claim not to compete on standards and endeavour to apply the same high standards across the REG. Those of us who have had dealings with them have differing stories to tell!
UNITED KINGDOM In the UK the Flag Administration is the Marine Coastguard Agency (MCA) and is the overarching Maritime Administration overseeing the Red Ensign Group. The MCA sits at the IMO and represents the REG Flags where one of their tasks is to ensure that the REG - Yacht Code continues to enjoy
ONBOARD | AUTUMN 2020 | 61
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228
