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CE Marking for home-built boat


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I'm planning to build a couple of sailing dinghies this year.  Last time I built one for my then 7 year-old son, was 30 years ago, but it looks as if not much has changed in simple boatbuilding techniques, so I expect the skills will all come back to me.

I've read that, under an EU directive, all pleasure boats (with certain exceptions not relevant in this case) must be CE marked.  You don't have to get this mark if you're building the boat for yourself as long as you don't sell it within 5 years, but I do plan to sell one of the boats in order to finance the other, so it looks as if I'll have to comply.

Does anyone know where one would have to apply in France for CE certification on a home-built boat?

Patrick 

 

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I've just started researching this and got this info from a chap who's built a couple for his own use.

www.mer.gouv.fr is the site. Follow 'plaisance' and 'fiches d'informations' and you will see the one on amateur building. Essentially up to 24mt (!) non commercial it is self certifying and cannot be sold under 5 yrs from first use. If you wish to sell it must be CE certified, with all the tests and costs.

Haven't had a chance to read all through it yet. What I have gleaned from British sources is that it is likely to cost more to certify a one-off dinghy than to build it.

There are a couple of exceptions that might help. Boats under 2.5m long are outside the rules, so you could build as many small tenders as you wish. Building a replica of a pre-1950 design is also OK, subject to some caveats.

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This is exactly the sort of overdone legislation that gets up my nose!  Unfortunately, even after the revisions kindly pointed out by clarksinfrance (thanks for that) the rules are pretty much as I thought. 

Thanks, too Albert for pointing out that boats under 2.5 metres do not have to be CE marked.  This means that an Optimist dinghy, the first boat that most people put their children in to learn to sail, does not have to be CE marked while any boat just a couple of inches longer does.

Happily, the first one I plan to build is just 2.4 metres overall.  I'm building one that size so that I can recycle the rig and sail that I still have from my son's boat that I built 30 years ago.  No problem with that one then.

Unfortunately I was planning to move on to a 5 metre double-ended dayboat next.  I chose this larger design partly because it's a capable seaboat from a reputable and experienced designer, and partly because I could use the rig and sails I have from another old dinghy.   No problem if I keep the boat for my own use for 5 years before selling it, but not fine if I were to decide after one or two years to sell it to make space for a bigger boat.  It would be illegal to sell it without certification and lots of paperwork.

I haven't decided how to tackle the problem of the larger boat, but I imagine that some amateur builders might simply backdate the year of build. 

So don't expect me to snooker myself by publishing a daily blog showing the construction in progress.

Patrick    

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Pat,

I haven't looked into it yet, but knowing how the French fonctionnaire thinks I'd expect that a 5 metre boat would need to be registered in some way. They would definitely expect an insurance history for it if it came to proving its build date.

You might want to have a look here: http://www.backyardboatbuilding.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=77 . More heat than light, but it provides a bit of extra background.

Out of interest, would that be an Ian Oughtred desisgn you're thinking of?

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Thanks Albert, your link wouldn't open a page for me, but no matter because I've found a number of other boatbuilding forums.

I like the Ian Oughtred Caledonia Yawl, but it's a bit bigger than the space I've managed to clear in the garage, so I'm starting with a Selway Fisher Greenshank which is the same size as, bur more robust and adaptable than the Peter Milne Scamp I built all those years ago.  Then I plan to build myself a Selway Fisher Islay Skiff.  Same sort of style as the Oughtred boat but shorter, lighter and with a simpler rig. 

I've also got an old Jack Holt Miracle which I bought cheap for the trailer that came with it.  It needs a fair bit of restoration work including totally redecking, and I'm not sure I'll do it.  I may just strip it of all the useful bits then chop up the hull and burn it.

I've heard that the RYA may be able to certify amateur built boats  If so, and if the cost is not prohibitive, I may have to take it over to England to get it done.  That's the maiden voyage already planned, then.

Patrick    

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Stupid regulations are intended to be craftily circumvented.........................

A lesson hard learned from motor racing.

Personally, I would find some old rotted hulk of the approximate size: and use part of the keel: and thereafter claim I had "Restored" it.

Such approaches cause endless arguments and bickering in vintage car racing: when people buy or find a wrecked, let's say, Bugatti in a barn: and "Re-Build" it around the original steering wheel and two bits of chassis.

[6]

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[quote user="Gluestick"]

Personally, I would find some old rotted hulk of the approximate size: and use part of the keel: and thereafter claim I had "Restored" it.

[6]

[/quote]

...or maybe just collect a builder's name plate from an old boat in the breakers yard and "restore" a new boat around it.  Especially useful if the builder closed down 30 or 40 years ago so that no records remain.

Excellent scheme!  There could be money in those old wrecks rotting away in fields and mud berths

Patrick

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Quicker than building a boat.

Slice one stale pappy ersatz baguette in half: add wilted lettuce and a spread of foul mayo.A slice or two of unripe tomatoe: a slice or two of tasteless cucumber: drench in some nameless glug erroneously described as "American Million Island Dressing".

Add a slice or two of 99% transfatty acid Salami.

Et voila !

One sub!

[:D]

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[quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"]Actually, you don't need to go to such lengths. Submersibles are excluded from the rules, so just build yourself a sub.[/quote]

Is any boat that sinks considered to be a submersible?

Patrick

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