Yachting Monthly 0shares
Yachting Monthly experts help you unravel what the new regulations post-Brexit mean for UK and EU sailors
Non-UK residents can buy and keep a boat in the UK. Credit: Alex Ramsey/Alamy
I am planning to re-visit western Scotland, and am looking for a new boat.
Would it be legal for me, as an EU citizen and Dutch national, to buy and keep a boat in the UK post-Brexit?
Willem Zijp
The RYA’s cruising manager, Stuart Carruthers responds:
I assume Mr Zijp is resident in the Netherlands and will visit the boat when he can.
The honest answer is that we do not know, but on the basis that people can own houses in the UK and not live here and that UK law is based on the principle that nothing is prohibited unless the law says it is, I can find nothing in our legislation that would indicate this is not possible provided the advice in the government guidance Owning a Boat is followed, as we all have to.