JMGilley

Hello everyone,

I have agreed to purchase a boat from someone in Abu Dhabi. I have been on the relevant websites but cannot for the life of me figure out how to achieve change of ownership to my name. I am aware that I will need to have the boat inspected down at the port, and submit for registration. The part I am unclear about it the drivers license. Its going to take me another couple of weeks to get the license and the vendor wants to complete the transaction this week. My question is do I need to have the license in order to change ownership to my name? ALso if anyone could confirm the steps I need to do in order to achieve this? Many thanks. John

TheShed

Millhouse

The only day when both of you will be happy simultaneously about owning a boat.

Pongo

scrubbedexpat141

Living the ****ing dream.

jam25mack

Kinda. The best way to go is to do the international powerboat course. It's a 2 day course I think and costs around 1,500 dibs. It is globally recognised whereas the UAE one only works here.

Also, as the licence thing is new if you can demonstrate you have previously owned a boat here they sometimes let you off without a licence... although they seem to flip flop on this one depending on who you talk to so probably best not to go this route.

100%.

Boats are money pits! Especially here. My mate had a bowrider here (23') which I was out on most weekends. Literally everything that needed fixed was between 3-6K. Also, add in Marina fees (20K+ Pa) and ongoing maintenance (arse scraping, cleaning) and its not a cheap hobby. Also, the second hand market is terrible.

You are much better off joining one of these schemes where you register and can then rent various boats as and when required.

Also, very few people actually use their boats very much. They buy them, use them a lot of say 6 months and then they just sit there rotting. We were the exception of all the boat folk we knew and were out near enough every weekend, sometimes twice.... and often after a night out while hammered....

This!

TheShed

Some very sound advice in the middle there. Currently a scheme is running (Through Exclusive I think) where you pay a membership scheme, they train you to RYB standard and qualification and then you have the choice of about 15 different boats to choose from. Turn up, have fun, park it, walk away. You only do the enjoyable parts of boating with non of the hassles.

scrubbedexpat141

Dad had two boats, both reasonable sizes. One sank but he got it restored and was an amazing project for him to be involved in, then he sold it to a bloke who takes tourists out now. The other was recently sold to the bloke he used to buy fuel from in the village, uses it for tourists too.

No joke, the motorboat was petrol not diesel so we used to use an oil drum, resting on styrofoam and wood cut to size on the back seats of a jeep wrangler (no roof). We'd drive to the garage, the guy would put the drum up and on, he'd made a hole and pipe thing for it, we'd fill it at the petrol station, drive it to the boat and gravity feed it into the motorboat.

Greece. The land of opportunity.

Msasa Roots

Love this, Scamp. Sounds exactly like Zimbabwe, where I grew up (sadly without a boat, though!)

archie159

You cannot complete the purchase of the boat till you get the security clearance done, and that usually takes at least 3-4 weeks. You also need the licence before you can register the boat to you.
You might however be able to do all he initial paperwork necessary to release the previous owner (he will want his transponder deposit back) before you get the security clearance completed. I have never heard of anyone not getting security clearance, so I suppose you could pay the current owner his money at this stage.
If you go down to the office in Mina Port they are usually quite helpful at explaining the processes - just make sure you speak to both the FTA and CICPA desk, as they both have steps to do. Take originals and copies of everything you can think of - salary certificates, no object certificates, passports, visas, photos. Be prepared for 2 to 3 return visits... The inspection cannot be done till the security clearance is complete.

PS - disagree with some of the above comments about costs of running boats. It all depends on the boat... mine is a simple 24 foot "local boat", with a Mercury outboard motor. Very reliable, very low running costs, big enough for 2 or 3 families. The only big cost is the marina, which is also a lot less than stated above, and the occasional anti-fouling. The boats which cost a lot are the flashy blingy boats expats often seem to buy. I know a few people who do these boat share schemes (eg Captains Club), and pay a lot more than I do for quite a limited number of hires per month. The main advantage of the share schemes are that you don't have to get involved with sorting the engine services, or the boat re licencing - which is a bit of a pain, I fully admit.