ONBOARD Magazine summer 2021

LEGAL
“The answer is you can register your ownership and that registration
is good against the shipyard of course and it is also good against
the shipyard’s creditors or a liquidator in case the yard ever
goes bankrupt. But, the Cayman Islands flag will also allow you to
register your ownership, And I’ve seen a number of cases over the
years where people who really ought to know better will decide
to register it in the Cayman Islands. It’s a big mistake because
questions of ownership to a yacht that’s under construction in
Italy depend completely on Italian law and if you haven’t bothered
to register your ownership in Italy and the shipyard goes bankrupt
your claim against the liquidator is void. You can’t enforce the
security. That’s a pretty fundamental mistake and I am always
surprised at the number people that make it.”
Charlier remembers an example of a yacht in Cannes where the
yacht structure meant it couldn’t benefit from the VAT exemption
and the owner ended up paying the VAT on the hull value. “It turned
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out that the owner had taken advice from the yacht broker. It’s
important to get the right kind of advice from people who know.”
On another occasion a client was persuaded do buy the owning
company rather than the yacht itself without taking any legal
advice. Fair enough you might say, it’s not a complicated thing
to do. But he found there were inherent problems with the crew
and very quickly the cost of the yacht was put in the shade by the
amount that was claimed by the crew members and the yacht
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ONBOARD | SUMMER 2021 | 93