Boat registration if documented?

Hi Eric, I do not have an answer for you but I contacted Penelope (Sugarbird in Expat) with the question. She has not been in the forum for a long time but she is in FB, so I put the question to her. Lets see if she responds. She had a sailboat in PR which she sold.

If you claim residency in the island, you will need to have the boat register in PR. You need to have the boat tittle on your name,  your ID and SSN card. You will need to go to the DRN office to register. You may have to pay taxes based on the value of the boat.

If you do not want to register the boat in the island, you will have to leave territorial waters for 24hrs every so often to keep a out of state registration.

Adlin, I wonder if leaving periodically will do the trick because we'll definitely leave for stretches longer than 24 hours multiple times a year.  With the US Coast Guard Documentation as our registration, maybe that will do it?  Also, I read somewhere that boats that are pre-1998 vintage (ours is a '95) are exempt from the import tax...still trying and hoping to confirm that though.  Ever heard anything about that?

To clarify, yes we'll be full time residents.

I see plenty of sail boats and motor boats at La Parguera with out of state registration. I know you need to leave the territorial waters for a period of time in order to stay legal. Tons of snowbirds do that.

http://drna.pr.gov/documentos/ley-430-ingles/

Check out this site, some of the regulations are in English.

Here is the main site

http://drna.pr.gov/historico/oficinas/o … arcaciones

Thanks much, Adlin20!  I also plan to ask a couple of the marina managers about it when we visit in a few weeks.  I've heard the folks at Puerto Del Rey in particular are usually happy to give you the skinny on all the necessary red tape for boats.