Boating in Phuket - Will the boats get a free-pass or confiscation? Now +100 boats in Phukets have over-stayed +2 years

[bilbofarang]

There really should be a 'boating' section for thai-visa, or better yet, and boating section for asean-now, but whatever,

 

Well known is the COVID lockdown since last year stranded lots of people who over-stayed the 30 days 90 days, ... but the gov let them slide.

But what about the 'boats', not known well is they say 'bring your yachts and hang out  in thailand', ok and the boat get's six months, and then another extension, but at two years that's it, so what people did is go down to Langkawi, and in&out ( like visa-runs for boats ) and then back to thailand for another +1 year, but now Malaysia is closed, like Thailand so the boats and 100's have rotted in Phuket, and everywhere there are boats, and many haven't even been looked after as the owners can't even go to these places; Then the people who actually live there have seen their biz go down -90%.

 

The question begs to be asked 'will the gov offer an amnesty' for the stuck boats? Well there is a tax-amnesty, but that largely is just a matter of paying the 7% tax on registration in Thailand, but make no mistake that when all the fee's, licenses, and permits are integrated 20-50% is not uncommon to register a boat in Thailand. Using the COVID & people analogy the boats should have been given an 'amnesty pass', but I'm not hearing anything such thing, what I'm hearing is the the boats can be sold, and then must be registered as 'thai', which means paying enormous fee's, license, and permits; That unless the boats that have sat +2 years in Thailand, unless they become 'thai registered' they're essentially ghost-ships where the owners are paying the storage on the behalf of the future owners.

 

We used to joke "never bring big money to thailand", now we can joke, "never bring valuable assets to thailand".

 

So now we have these 'stuck boats', now many are on land, but if they do eventually go back in the water or try to go to Langkawi, when it opens, its a problem. Normally when a boat leaves Thailand its an an all day process of going to 3-6 gov agency's and getting signed off, certainly given that any boat sitting +2 years in Thailand is essentially then property of thailand, well what is coming? I don't hear anything, just curious if anybody knows?

 

Well like Plan-2030 says "You will own nothing and you will be happy", certainly the people making up all the rules and policy are doing this for our own good & happiness.

 

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Post Covid changes are in, and even Malaysia is doing away with its 'second home program' and offloading some +65,000 farang who thought that forever meant forever, even langkawi is getting out of the 'duty free' ( cheap booze ) biz, and moving toward eco-topia on the 'island'; 

 

Post covid nothing will be the same, ever again; A complete 100% reset it will be.

 

Most of the farang where I live are gone, most have gone home during the last +2 years of lockdown, and closing of the watering-holes; The re-entry with "COE" means that none of the 'poor farang' are ever returning. We're entering a new age. I'm really not sure the goal, I suspect its really about cooperation with China, certainly seems that for every poor-farang they dump, they bring in ten rich Chinese guys.

 

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Trump did away with the TPA 'Trans-Pacific Partnership' which effectively would have brought western priced medicine to the ASEAN world, covid is the back-door, much of the 'sand-box' of phuket is to lock-in these new medical charges like 5,000thb for a 'test', or $100K USD for med-insurance coverage, where 3M THB is more than a thai-house, and who would have thought the medical biz could ever make money in ASIA like big-pharma or AMA in USA? But it's here now, and its not going away.

 

 

[Elkski]

Is there some law that after 2 years a boat needs to be re registered as a Thai boat?  

[bilbofarang]

Just now, Elkski said:

Is there some law that after 2 years a boat needs to be re registered as a Thai boat?  

No of course not, that's like saying, is there a law that says a 'farang' must get a thai citizenship after two years? NO

 

Thailand is very generous with the 6+6 months, normally only <deleted>-holes 'over-stay', or criminals; But with COVID your over-stay is in effect brought on by the lockdown. Say, Phuket in order to leave you must obtain 'exit papers' from harbor-master, but 'exit' is not allowed under lockdown.

 

Boat's or Yacht's, largely travel the world and usually registered in Caymans, and or Langkawi, some tax-free jurisdiction of which there are dozens.

 

Like I said, Thailand is quite clear, while a visa on arrival may have gotten you 30 days, and then an extension. A boat brought into thailand got six months, then you could extend once,  most people who kept 'foreign registered yachts' in Thailand, would 'visa-flip' the boats annually in Malaysia, rinse&repeat, just like human-livestock does the same ( visa runs ) to Myanmar or Laos.

 

Two years is just the 'drop-dead' point, where like for instance you overstay, if its over (+10) ten years, then your banned for life? R U getting this yet?

Essentially a boat that over-stays +2 years in Thailand, becomes property of Thailand. Farang's simply get a red-stamp in their passport & a boot in the <deleted>.

 

The generic question here is "Is there any lobby group" in Hua-Hin,  Pattaya, or Phuket lobbying for this misfortune that is COVID? These people are locked down, there is no egress and/or ingress to/from Phuket, nobody could have got their boat out even if they wanted too, unless they were clairvoyant last year, and saw all this coming. I personally always thought the lock-down was permanent, its always been a wet-dream of the Elite Davos Billionaires forever to lockdown the commoner. Much of the old European serf model of the world never allowed the low-lifes off the farm.

 

Simple reason for owning a boat, is to escape lockdowns and set sail and find freedom, funny when the lockdowns first started in USA, the first thing they did is ban sailing ( close the marinas ), funny how can people at sea become infected?

 

Normally most boats are flagged, here it would be "Australian Flags", most of these people intend to re-sell, and most boats get sent back to Malaysia ( Penang) , and then packaged with a ribbon, and shipped in a container back to Austraila, where they resold, and then another dream couple makes as far as Thailand dumps the boat, and rinse & repeat.

 

Take the USA most States, only allow up to six months before you must be 'taxes' ( sales-tax ) the local gov, and get the boat registered, so in reality Thailand is/was extremely and lenient.

 

The question here is does anybody know what is being done for the owners of these boats? I will not respond to any other inquiry here that doesn't address this question.

 

Lastly, I will say one last thing, I'm not talking about $1M yachts, I'm talking about 1M THB boats. I'm sure the people who came to Thailand and are sitting out their 'yacht quarantine', in $100M USD yachts, have the best lawyers that money can buy.

[sketcher]

Free extensions have are being given by the customs department. Easy process and helpful staff. Never any suggestion boats would be 'confiscated'

[mikebike]

Seems like you are asking if anyone has a crystal ball... a letter to the marine authorities may be more helpful.

[VocalNeal]

To answer the question. How nice is the boat in question?