TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums US VI and Puerto Rico SVI PR sail

Hi all, we are looking at a two week sail in SVI with a stop in PR, seems like not a lot of folks on here do this? Interested in touching base with folks who have done this and any tips , other sites, forums you have found helpful etc.
Thanks in advance

Be very careful of the moorings -- usually picked up by power boats -stern to -- easily frayed and weak.

A few things.
Get the Pavlidis guide.
AvaIlabilty of fresh water in the SVI is an issue. You may find a local to bring some to you in Jerry jugs on Culebra. I think we paid $1 per gallon a few years ago.
Try to time Vieques when there is no full moon and take in the bio-bay tour.

The south side of Puerto Rico is a great place to sail. Salinas, Ponce and stops in between are nice.
The problem with visiting mainland Puerto Rico is the hard beat back into the trade winds, coming back east.
We really like sailing in Puerto Rico and the SVI.

Only been sailing in the SVIs once, but we loved it! Flew into Puerto Rico and chartered out of Puerto del Rey. Went counter clockwise to Vieques and then Culebra.

I put together a sort of guide based on our experience on my website here: Sailing in Puerto Rico

We had found your guide Matt! It is awesome and my husband loves it ! Thanks so much for posting it . May connect with you for further questions

We've stopped at Puerto del Rey marina in south Fajardo a couple of times. it is a huge marina and they will pick you up and drop off with a golf cart. We rented cars from Enterprise in Fajardo and arranged for pickup and dropoff. El Yiunque is certainly worth a visit, followed by the food kiosks on Luquillo. Sun Bay Marina in Fajardo is another option that friends have used. Both have fuel docks and water.

We enjoyed Salinas and Ponce. Salinas has a couple of marinas with fuel and water. We anchored in the lagoon. Restaurante El Dorado is very good PR food. Ponce has the Ponce Yacht Club fuel dock and water. We anchored, dinghied to the yacht club, and had them call a taxi.

On Culebra, you can buy water at the Dinghy Dock restaurant by the gallon. You will need to jug it in your dinghy. The same with the gas station in the canal dinghy and jugs.

Cheers, RickG

Glad it was helpful, happy to connect anytime

Nice guide, Matt. Thanks for posting.

I think you or your brother own the boat. Be careful of the tax implications. If it’s a US documented boat and you go into Puerto Rican waters a duty of 1.5% is probably due if not already paid. That is the rule. From a practical standpoint I don’t think there is a attempt at enforcement as you are supposed to self disclose. Here is the best explanation I could find. I confirmed it with a call to customs as I looked at putting my boat in the USVI.

It is not uncommon for US Customs to fail to identify US-flagged boats that should pay duty upon entry into the US. This typically happens to USCG-flagged boats that were made outside the US and the members of NAFTA/etc, such as many French Beneteaus or South African Leopards that work for 5 years in the BVI charter fleets and are then taken to the US by the owners (as opposed to a delivery skipper bring ing in a new boat fromFrance that has not even been registered, hence clearly seen as subject to duty).

Note that when you got the the LBO card you may have said things(like providing a US address in the form) that may make it difficult to argue that you are not a US resident.

Their failure to tell you that you need to pay duty may not be a good defense for you when they ask you how come you went in without paying duty. I suggest you ask a customs broker who knows about boat imports, of which there are not many. AFAIK you can only find them in places (California, Washington state and Florida) where every once in a while Customs catches some duty evaders.

I believe that in most of those cases the owners mistakenly believe that the US flag (which confuses the Customs guy) means they do not need to pay duty. AFAIK if you want a legal way to avoid triggering duty when you enter the US with a French cruising boat to cruise US waters you need to have foreign flag and non(US) resident owner and apply for either a cruising license or a normal clear-in form (with the attending hassle of reporting movements, etc, restrictions on trash disposal, etc)

Don´t get confused with the "duty on sale" situation for foreign-flagged foreign-made boats on cruising licenses. Sale (or offer for sale) will trigger duty on those boats (see parts b-c-d of 4.94, which are for foreign-flagged boats) . IMHO in your case you should worry about not having filed an import declaration (and then paid duty) when you went in the first time.

Also don´t get confused about Puerto Rico. As far as duty is concerned Puerto Rico is one more state. If Customs in PR can catch you for duty the Customs in Florida also can. Only difference I know is that those Boricua federal employees seem to know their rules better than their brothers in Florida. USVI is another story because they are a special customs territory (loosely defined).

I was told once that there is no statute of limitations for this sort of thing if you did not file an import declaration (as opposed to filing an incorrect one). Your mileage may vary.

I bought a UK sailing vessel in Florida, from a British owner.

I then documented the boat with the USCG and did not have to pay any taxes what-so-ever.

The only thing I had to do was remove the boat from Florida waters within 90 days to avoid any Florida taxes.

If your boat was permanently based in FL the owner probably paid the import tax. If not it slipped through the cracks.

The vessel arrived in Florida from the Caribbean with the owner I purchased her from. No taxes.

The owner got lucky and it slipped through the cracks. As the excerpt from the article I posted mentioned enforcement is spotty. If the owner brought the boat into the US on a cruising permit no import duty was due until it was sold or the applied to keep the boat permanently in the US.