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Bareboat registration

Legal Harbour offers legal support in bareboat charter registration.

Bareboat registration is a legal arrangement whereby the nationality of the bareboat charterer is allocated to the ship during the period of the bareboat charter. This type of registration permits a vessel to temporarily fly the flag of another country while ownership continues to be registered in the underlying registry.

Temporary registration offers a welcome element of flexibility in a number of commercial situations such as compliance with local legal requirements or finding cost effective solutions to operate the vessel locally. Bareboat registration has certain advantages especially for maintaining of the status of existing mortgages during the period that the vessel is subject to the temporary registration.

Bareboat registration is recognized in international law and is reflected in the international treaties.  Bareboat registration is conditional on the requirement that the laws of both underlying and  bareboat flag states must explicitly recognize and acknowledge that the law of the state of underlying registry is exclusively applicable to mortgages and related instruments recorded therein.

We offer both:

  • all-inclusive solutions
  • specific support in a certain stage of bareboat registration process such as review or draft of the bareboat charter parties, obtaining necessary consents or review and/or advice on a particular stage of the bareboat registration procedure.

Our services comprise of:

  • Review of all pro’s and con’s in respect of bareboat flag state choice
  • Advice on requirements to apply for bareboat registration in the country as required by clients
  • Negotiation, draft, review of bareboat agreements
  • Bareboat registration
  • Handling of all requirements imposed by main (underlying) registration.