US customs woes!!

magnusmurphy · #1 01-26-2007

We recently bought a boat in Rhode Island and reregistered it as Canadian with the eventual intention of bringing her into Canada. We are Canadian citizens living in Calgary. We took all our equipment and related cruising gear off our old boat which we're trying to sell and planned to send all this to the new boat for our upcoming cruise. I'm sure you can guess the rest - everything was denied entry and turned away. There are 12 boxes constituting everything we need for cruising in comfort and safety. Without it - no cruise. Nothing is less than at least a few years old.

We currently have Schenker Int looking into it but they're not too optimistic apparently.

Why does the world have to be so complicated???

Any suggestions???

M. Murphy

Vasco · #2 01-26-2007

Apparently you can bring the boat into Canada without paying duty, gst, pst etc. if it comes back for repairs or commissioning but not to be used for pleasure. Ship your stuff down east and sail the boat over, load up and take off. Of course I would check with Canadian Customs first.

cardiacpaul · #3 01-26-2007

Vasco,
buddy, maps.google.com rhode island to calgary.... its a heck of a sail.

Vasco · #4 01-26-2007

Cardiacpaul,

If you read my post you'll see that I said "ship your stuff down east" - that means (to Canadians) somewhere in the Maritimes. You can sail there from Rhode Island. (Google Earth).

sailingdog · #5 01-26-2007

Or you could drive down from Calgary, and pack all the stuff in to the car. Or if you want to drive a good deal less. Ship the stuff to Montreal, fly there and rent a car, load it all up, and drive down to Rhode Island. The drive from Montreal to Rhode Island is very doable. The drive from Calgary to Rhode Island is a bit on the long side.

Vasco · #6 01-26-2007

sailingdog,

Yours is the better idea. US Customs don't seem to care too much what you take down by car although they seem to inspect all the trunks now.

sailingdog · #7 01-26-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vasco

sailingdog,

Yours is the better idea. US Customs don't seem to care too much what you take down by car although they seem to inspect all the trunks now.

Just don't bring Flares with you, and you probably won't have too much of a problem. If the stuff is new-in-a-box, I'd ditch the box, and just carry it... that way it looks less like something you're going to sell. I would also recommend that you have your boat documentation with you, so you can show customs that you are bringing the stuff in for personal use, rather than re-sale. That will probably help if they do decide to check your trunk more thoroughly... Buy the flares when you get to Rhode Island.

Vasco · #8 01-26-2007

and make sure you havent had any CAAT scans or the likes recently. Apparently the radioactive sniffers (they're where you stop before approaching the customs booth) go off if you've had that dye stuff recently.

sailingdog · #9 01-26-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vasco

and make sure you havent had any CAAT scans or the likes recently. Apparently the radioactive sniffers (they're where you stop before approaching the customs booth) go off if you've had that dye stuff recently.

A note from the doctor and a copy of recent medical records would be useful if you don't have anyway of avoiding such procedures just before leaving for the USA...

ebs001 · #10 01-26-2007

Vasco you are right about the trunk search. What are they expecting to find because they just take a quick look, not a thorough inspection at all - people maybe?