No More Foxing

The Bloke waited to break the news to Mum that we were signed up for the Down Under Go East Rally to New Caledonia until after her birthday. We didn't want her to be worried any longer than needs be, for worry she will! Having reached the ripe age of 95 however, we figured she would be old enough to know.

There has been a colossal amount of work going on since our return to the East Coast after Xmas. Progress has been slow and tentative. Whooping Cough can't be willed away. You first need to endure and survive at least 100 days of ... just know that you never want to catch this disease! We chipped away at a long list of tasks.

An important step was to get SV Zofia registered as an Australian vessel. 250nm off Australian mainland shores is your notional boundary before you are considered to be quite literally OVERSEAS! If your passport has not been stamped on departure, one can expect problems when arriving at another country. Getting that sorted out was our first step and we were warned it's a process that might take 3 months. Get started ASAP in other words!

The Ships Registry Office, based in Canberra, is a division of AMSA and handles the registration. Not only do they want to know everything about who owns the vessel, their nationality, etc but the full and uninterrupted provenance of the vessel. Being effectively the original owners we thought at first blush, this should be an easy knock off. Wrong. No, no-no, not the original owners at all. Let's try the  boat builder Jeanneau, who transferred to the Australian dealer, who transferred to the West Australian agent who the sold to us. All the transfer documents needed chasing down.

Our trophy -SV Zofia O.N.861824

If anyone else wants to register a 'Zofia' in Australia they will have to settle for Zofia II

Luckily, the Ships Registry Office is remarkably helpful. There are some 6 documents to be filled in and they encouraged us to fill everything in then scan and email the drafts so that they could scrutinize and advise of any necessary changes prior going to the extent of signing and finding witnesses. This for us was a lucky thing because despite having good internet cover for the forms we needed to make special trips ashore to find suitable witnesses from a defined list of suitable occupations. We had toyed with the idea of asking a longstanding friend, but he was now retired and 'Australian of The Year' was not on the list, so we stuck rigidly to the list rather than slip up.

2017 Australian of the Year – Emeritus Professor Alan Mackay-Sim

The Bloke and Alan at the Central Station in Brisbane. 

We are more than a bit glad that our plans are now out in the open - after all, even Alan knew. We love you Mum! XXX