I will have the need to store my QLD registered yacht for up to 6 months on a NSW mooring or marina berth.
I've been told that to do that for more than 2 months, the authorities will ask you to change the reg to NSW or be fined.
Is it the same in reverse?? A NSW registered yacht in a QLD berth or swing mooring?
Are there any ways around this rule?
Cheers.

The info on "Interstate or overseas vessels in NSW" at www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/boat-and-vessel-registration/interstate-and-overseas-vessels suggests the maximum is three months.

To use NSW waterways, you don't need NSW registration as long as your vessel:
- is registered in another state, territory, or overseas
- isn't normally used on NSW navigable waters
- hasn't been in NSW more than 3 months
- is properly numbered, and
- carries an identification plate required by the vessel's home state, territory or country.

It's the same in Tassie, for example. Not sure about other states and the NT.

I suspect it is a pretty standard requirement (similar to requirement to locally register a car that will be garaged in a state for more than 3 months).

I'm not sure how actively policed it is. If you're on a swing mooring, the local boat safety officer may make a note of comings and goings in his/her area. If you're in a marina, I doubt NSW Transport keeps a close eye on it - though I s'pose it's possible they ask marina operators to report on it. Or marina operators may keep a check on it 'cause it's a requirement in their insurance, for example. But I'd be surprised if they do.

It might pay to make some discrete inquiries of a couple of marina operators about berthing your boat for 6 months before heading back to Queensland and see if they raise it as an issue.

Mind you, the cost of NSW registration is likely to be only a fraction of the cost of a marina berth for 6 months.

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Quixotic said..
The info on "Interstate or overseas vessels in NSW" at www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/boat-and-vessel-registration/interstate-and-overseas-vessels suggests the maximum is three months.

To use NSW waterways, you don't need NSW registration as long as your vessel:
- is registered in another state, territory, or overseas
- isn't normally used on NSW navigable waters
- hasn't been in NSW more than 3 months
- is properly numbered, and
- carries an identification plate required by the vessel's home state, territory or country.

It's the same in Tassie, for example. Not sure about other states and the NT.

I suspect it is a pretty standard requirement (similar to requirement to locally register a car that will be garaged in a state for more than 3 months).

I'm not sure how actively policed it is. If you're on a swing mooring, the local boat safety officer may make a note of comings and goings in his/her area. If you're in a marina, I doubt NSW Transport keeps a close eye on it - though I s'pose it's possible they ask marina operators to report on it. Or marina operators may keep a check on it 'cause it's a requirement in their insurance, for example. But I'd be surprised if they do.

It might pay to make some discrete inquiries of a couple of marina operators about berthing your boat for 6 months before heading back to Queensland and see if they raise it as an issue.

Mind you, the cost of NSW registration is likely to be only a fraction of the cost of a marina berth for 6 months.

Thanks Quixotic.
I did somemore looking into it and found that NSW rego costs for a 43ft yacht are $439 vs $608 QLD.
I spoke to TMR QLD and they are'nt concerned how long your interstate reg'd boat is in QLD waters as long as your principle place of residence is outside QLD.
So if you are cruising up and down the EastCoast, it seems to make more sense to have your yacht reg'd in NSW (at least in my situation anyhow).
I also found out that if you are on a 6 or 12mth leased swing mooring in NSW and the vessel has been off the mooring for a (month or more I think it was) you may get a "please explain" regardless of where the boat is reg'd.
One national governing body would be too much to ask for.......

NSW reg for my 40 footer was $295 a couple of years ago. NSW have hiked it quite a bit in the last year or so. :-(

Not sure about absence from a leased mooring, if by that you mean leased from a company or sailing club that has them available.

If you have your own private mooring, that is, a NSW Transport licence issued to you for a specific location (at which you then have installed and maintained your own apparatus, and have it removed when you cease mooring there), then your boat is not s'posed to be away from more than 28 days at a time, unless you write to them in advance requesting to be away for longer. I suspect this is a lot to do with the waiting times to get a private mooring licence in many areas, particularly in Sydney. If there're people waiting and you're not using your mooring, I presume NSW may revoke your mooring licence, and issue one to someone who's waiting.

Not sure this applies to a mooring where you pay a company (or sailing club) to use their mooring.

Others may know.

Whereabouts in NSW are you looking? In many parts of the NSW coast it is difficult to get a new private mooring licence issued. NSW Transport is in dispute with the NSW Dept responsible for marine parks about whether NSW Transport can issue mooring licences in marine parks (which cover a lot of the NSW coast), without any other permits being required. Been going on for some time and I haven't heard that it has been resolved, In the meantime NSW wasn't issuing mooring licences for locations in marine parks.

Some regulars on this forum lease existing swing moorings in Batemans Bay from one or t'other company there. I leased a swing mooring from the Batemans Bay Marina for about 6 months last year. Cost about $900 a quarter. That's about what it was costing me per month in Newcastle Yacht Club marina, back in 2023,

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Windjana said..

Quixotic said..
The info on "Interstate or overseas vessels in NSW" at www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/boat-and-vessel-registration/interstate-and-overseas-vessels suggests the maximum is three months.

To use NSW waterways, you don't need NSW registration as long as your vessel:
- is registered in another state, territory, or overseas
- isn't normally used on NSW navigable waters
- hasn't been in NSW more than 3 months
- is properly numbered, and
- carries an identification plate required by the vessel's home state, territory or country.

It's the same in Tassie, for example. Not sure about other states and the NT.

I suspect it is a pretty standard requirement (similar to requirement to locally register a car that will be garaged in a state for more than 3 months).

I'm not sure how actively policed it is. If you're on a swing mooring, the local boat safety officer may make a note of comings and goings in his/her area. If you're in a marina, I doubt NSW Transport keeps a close eye on it - though I s'pose it's possible they ask marina operators to report on it. Or marina operators may keep a check on it 'cause it's a requirement in their insurance, for example. But I'd be surprised if they do.

It might pay to make some discrete inquiries of a couple of marina operators about berthing your boat for 6 months before heading back to Queensland and see if they raise it as an issue.

Mind you, the cost of NSW registration is likely to be only a fraction of the cost of a marina berth for 6 months.

Thanks Quixotic.
I did somemore looking into it and found that NSW rego costs for a 43ft yacht are $439 vs $608 QLD.
I spoke to TMR QLD and they are'nt concerned how long your interstate reg'd boat is in QLD waters as long as your principle place of residence is outside QLD.
So if you are cruising up and down the EastCoast, it seems to make more sense to have your yacht reg'd in NSW (at least in my situation anyhow).
I also found out that if you are on a 6 or 12mth leased swing mooring in NSW and the vessel has been off the mooring for a (month or more I think it was) you may get a "please explain" regardless of where the boat is reg'd.
One national governing body would be too much to ask for.......

No ,no, no, couldn't have that, think about the bureaucrats that would become jobless, and their minders.....

So how many of those who want a national maritime system would be happy with the draconian Victorian system that requires people sitting in the cockpit of a 35 footer while anchored (IIRC) on a river in a dead calm to wear a PFD although it's perfectly legal to go swimming around the same boat without one, or the strict NSW mooring and tender laws? If you want the same laws across the entire country, you'll often get the same bad laws.

No Chris, no pfd needed while anchored, thank goodness. See page 34 of the handbook.

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wongaga said..
No Chris, no pfd needed while anchored, thank goodness. See page 34 of the handbook.

Thanks for that correction. It's good to see I was wrong.

I also see that you have to wear a PFD at all times on an Etchells or other boat without lifelines. I wear PFDs when dinghy sailing and a lot of the time when windsurfing, but seeing people having to wear PFDs while motoring offshore yachts past swimmers in a dead calm on the Gippsland Lakes is surreal.

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Chris 249 said..

wongaga said..
No Chris, no pfd needed while anchored, thank goodness. See page 34 of the handbook.

Thanks for that correction. It's good to see I was wrong.

I also see that you have to wear a PFD at all times on an Etchells or other boat without lifelines. I wear PFDs when dinghy sailing and a lot of the time when windsurfing, but seeing people having to wear PFDs while motoring offshore yachts past swimmers in a dead calm on the Gippsland Lakes is surreal.

Only need PFDs when alone, at night, when a wind warning has been declared i.e. >25kts, crossing a bar, etc. Not needed to wear PFD when in company, in mild conditions, daylight, etc. My understanding of the rules, and I sail mostly alone.

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FabulousPhill said..

Chris 249 said..

wongaga said..
No Chris, no pfd needed while anchored, thank goodness. See page 34 of the handbook.

Thanks for that correction. It's good to see I was wrong.

I also see that you have to wear a PFD at all times on an Etchells or other boat without lifelines. I wear PFDs when dinghy sailing and a lot of the time when windsurfing, but seeing people having to wear PFDs while motoring offshore yachts past swimmers in a dead calm on the Gippsland Lakes is surreal.

Only need PFDs when alone, at night, when a wind warning has been declared i.e. >25kts, crossing a bar, etc. Not needed to wear PFD when in company, in mild conditions, daylight, etc. My understanding of the rules, and I sail mostly alone.

You also need a PFD on a boat without lifelines in Vic - I checked the regs. And I still think it's silly that if I took our 35'er to Melbourne I'd have to wear a PFD if motoring slowly in a dead calm 50m off beaches where people are swimming if I was alone.

Have been very hesitant to enter into this thread but this event a few years ago was very sobering. If off topic then ignore. I went out and bought a crotch strap soon after and suggest everyone does so. I am not into red tape and bureaucracy but cannot comprehend why the legal system did not recommend if not mandate all relevant life jacket types include a crotch strap. www.kyfreepress.com.au/national/unwise-decision-in-tas-river-drowning/

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r13 said..
Have been very hesitant to enter into this thread but this event a few years ago was very sobering. If off topic then ignore. I went out and bought a crotch strap soon after and suggest everyone does so. I am not into red tape and bureaucracy but cannot comprehend why the legal system did not recommend if not mandate all relevant life jacket types include a crotch strap. www.kyfreepress.com.au/national/unwise-decision-in-tas-river-drowning/

It's a sad story and I agree about crotch straps, but arguably the other cure is to be able to swim well and to not rely on your PFD. Even a big one doesn't protect you from fatal splash drowning or cold water shock and won't save you if you are not conscious and active, but it still makes it all but impossible to swim well.

In the case you linked to, the person who died was within 10m of shore. Just being able to swim a very short distance could have saved him. The fact that a police officer could swim in, grab the person and tow them to shore shows that swimming was very practical. There's a lot of talk recently about a rise in drownings due to kids no longer being taught to swim at school which indicates that the water safety authorities feel that swimming ability is a lifesaver, but those who investigate boating deaths seem to concentrate instead on a single piece of safety equipment.

I used to do a fair bit of sea kayaking. There was a huge range of abilties but what I found interesting was that sometimes I would have to help a fat and unfit person with all the guff on the chest. There would be whistles and PLBs and extra cords on their lifejacket that would catch and hang as we tried to get them back in the cockpit after a capsize. It would take 5 minutes. Then you would get a slim and fit person back in without all the extra safety gear in a flash. It is up to us to be fit and slim enough to use our boats properly. If you can't then pop a jacket on. I don't wear a lifejacket in the dinghy, can't row properly with them, makes me less safe in a blow.