After looking at boats all over the Northeast from our home in Northern NY, we wound up buying a boat just across the St. Lawrence from us in Kingston Ontario. We were a bit nervous about importing the boat legally, but it turned out to be quite simple.
I first called our local Customs office a couple of times, and, as to be expected, I received conflicting information. Luckily, it's only ten miles from our house, so I decided to drive over there and show up in person. I had been told that we would need to secure the assistance of a customs broker, but I didn't think that was really necessary, and as it turned out, it wasn't.
I showed up with a file of downloaded forms that I had found online, and asked to see an agent who could help me fill them out. After being sent to a couple of different offices, I finally reached the right guy. The procedure for sailing the boat in (as we needed to do) is entirely different than bringing it in by trailer, so you have to be patient and steer through the system.
When I at last got where I needed to be, the folks were very helpful. As our boat is a 27 FC, built in Connecticut, there was no duty involved. And as the boat was old, there was no need for EPA paperwork. The one form we did need (beside a generic bill of sale) was five pages long and impossible for me to understand. So they just asked me to send them a fax of the bill of sale including the hull number, and they filled it out for me.
They also wanted a couple days lead-time for when we would bring it over, and a two hour window of when we would arrive at the public dock of our choosing. As it is now late in the year here, the dockside Customs Office was no longer open, so they agreed to meet us at the town dock in Alexandria Bay.
So that's what we did. As agreed, I called them when we were about 30 mins out from landing, and we arrived almost simultaneously with the officer. We showed him our passports, he verified the hull number, I signed one form (in triplicate) and we were done. Total cost? A few hours of research and prep, and zero dollars.
So if any US citizens are thinking of buying an Albin in Canada, don't be scared off by the paperwork. Sure, the may be some duty involved for a boat built in Sweden or Asia, but it is not a very difficult process.
Tom
