What information does the boat registration contain?

Like other vehicles, such as cars, boats have a license plate, which contains specific information that allows the vessel to be identified. Read on to discover how the boat registration is made up and what information it contains.

What is the registration code?

The registration is mandatory on any boat with a length greater than 2.5 meters, as long as it is not considered a “beach artifact.”

The registration code is set of letters and numbers that identifies the ship unequivocally, since it is unique and original for each boat. It must be painted on both sides of the boat, above the waterline and in appropriate color and size to be distinguished by any other vessel at sea.

The registration code must be visible at all times, so the captain or skipper of the boat is responsible for ensuring that the set of letters and numbers that make it up are not erased or suffer any corrosion.

What do the letters and numbers on a boat's registration mean?

The set of letters and numbers that make up the license plate It is not random, but responds to an order and meaning specifics, which we will see below:

• First of all, we can observe a ordinal number, corresponding to the list in which the ship is located.
• Below are the two letters corresponding to the maritime province in which the boat is registered.
• The next number corresponds to the Maritime District from the port of registration.
• Subsequently, the Folio number.
• Registration ends with last two figures of the current year (only on boats registered after 1991).

Example

6th – BA – 2- 375 – 22

In this case, it is a ship intended to be commercially exploited (6th list), of the Barcelona captaincy (BA-2), registered in the folio 375 and registered in 2022.

What are lists?

In Spain, there are 9 lists, which cThey classify boats based on use for which they are intended:

• First: deep-sea tugboats and extraction platforms.
• Second: transportation of goods and passengers.
• Third: fishing.
• Fourth: auxiliary fishing vessels or vessels intended for aquaculture.
• Fifth: tugboats and vessels intended for port services.
• Sixth: sports or pleasure boats dedicated to lucrative activities (rental, schools, etc.)
• Seventh: recreational or sports boats with capacity for up to 12 passengers intended for private use.
• Eighth: vessels of public organizations.
• Ninth: provisional registration for vessels under construction.

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Maritime provinces and districts

exist 31 maritime provinces, each of which is divided, in turn, into one or more districts maritime, which are identified by a number following the identification of the province.

What documentation is needed to register a boat?

To register a boat, the Maritime Authority requires present certain documents:

• Declaration of conformity of the vessel: in it, the manufacturer, or its authorized representative, declares that the boat complies with the current legislation of the European Union.
• Engine conformity declaration: It is also provided by the manufacturer and includes aspects such as noise or engine exhaust emissions.
• Ship inspection certificate: certificate of seaworthiness issued by the Maritime Administration, which guarantees that the vessel meets the conditions required for navigation.
• In the case of new boats, invoice with VAT broken down.
• In the case of second-hand boats, purchase and sale contract.
• If the boat is not new and comes from another flag, liquidation of the ITPYAJD tax.
• ID of the owner (certified copy).
• Proof of payment of T0 and T5 fees (corresponding to the private use of the public port domain and of sports and recreational vessels, respectively).
• Registration fees.
• Ship Technical Inspection Report (ITB).
• Certificate of deregistration of the country of origin of the vessel.

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Which boats do not need registration?

As we have already pointed out, according to current regulations, vessels of length less than 2.5 meters or those that can be considered “beach artifacts”, such as canoes, canoes or kayaks without a motor, for example.

What other ways can a ship be identified?

In addition to the registration, some ships have other forms of unequivocal identification, such as the MMSI number or IMO.

Since 1994, and through the adoption of the SOLAS Convention, the IMO (International Maritime Organization) assigns fishing vessels of 100 gross tonnage or more a unique identification number, consisting of the letters IMO followed by a 7-digit number, which must be visible either on the hull or on the superstructure of the ship. If the boat carries passengers, the number must also be visible from the air. Unlike the license plate, this number does not change with the change of flag.

For its part, the Ministry of Transport, through the General Directorate of the Merchant Navy, assigns all ships that request it a maritime mobile service identity number or MMSI, a 9 digit code which serves to unequivocally identify each of the radio stations for security and radio telecommunications purposes.