No license required.
Insurance sh

Yes and yes.

As to how easy I guess you'd need to call around.

Club Marine would be a good place to start. Then you can try haggling. Maybe try an insurance broker. What about some sort of international insurance from Canada? My marina requires 10mill coverage.

As for licensing, your issue I predict will be an address for processing. I'm an Aussie, who moved through many states and not being a federal system made it very difficult.

Don't forget same goes for boat rego.

It may be worth checking to see whether the bot you are buying has insurance. If it has, they may transfer the policy type to you as the new owner.

There is no operator license required for a sailing boat, but the boat must be registered with Roads and Maritime New South Wales and for that you will need a New South Wales address. Same for a mooring license.

I have a Top Hat and my insurance with NRMA is reasonably good at just $600 per year, but the boat is only insured for $12k with a $12 million liability for using marina services etc.

Good luck eh!

I got quoted about 300 per year for 3rd party insurance. I didnt get it at the time because the age of the boat meant i needed to get it surveyed. Surveying a tophat is about $400 but also means you must get boat lifted onto the hard (700 roughly)Not many costs really.
I.wanna do the same trip but times an issue. Maybe we can come to some arrangement . Ive got a new bakerbuilt tophat and shes great. You dont need a license unless moving at over 10knots. Nsw anyway. Not sure of qld.

Too many ****in rules . Dont leave your window down in your car or your door unlocked. 200 dollar fine for each. This country is ridiculous. helping to fill the world woth morons. Let the morons die. Stop making laws to save them. Id just use a 6hp motor to avoid the license malarkey. 1 thing ive learned recently about australia is that our court system and laws come from the queen. We are still living in the dark ages and still being governed by that monarchy albiet secretly.

Liquidator said..
Im curious if anyone has experience with the feasibility of my working plans? Im a a Canadian who wants to to buy a yacht, specifically a Tophat 25, and sail up the QLD coast. My concern has mainly to do with insurance and licensing. It seems I would need license to operate a sailboat with anything more than 4.5 kw of engine. Is this true?

Secondly, I hear I would need at least liability insurance to sail through QLD and stay at a marina now and then. Only thing is how easy is it to get insurance as a foreigner for a tiny 25 foit yacht?

Any advice or experience with similar circumstances would be appreciated.

G'day mate

Your biggest problem I can see is the fact that you will have to prove you are a Queensland resident to be able to effect the transfer of ownership of the yacht.
You need to become a QLD department of transport "customer".

I have been through the same process with them because I live in a different state to QLD, but I wanted to buy a QLD registered yacht.

I had to fill in a new customer application form and believe it or not, I had to FLY TO QLD IN PERSON, with documents to prove who I am! RIDICULOUS!!
Then I nominated a marina where I intended to keep the yacht which is also known as the "garaging address". An insurance policy showing that the yacht is kept at XYZ Marina will be enough.
Another avenue to go down is maybe to get a QLD driver's (car) licence first. This will prove you live in QLD, but I don't know how easy it is to do that either.

I can't comment on the difficulties you may encounter with buying a yacht in NSW, then sailing up the coast.

Sectorsteve: you are too right mate - too many rules - nanny state - coppers going around booking people for being 5kms/hr over the limit (just doing their job and keeping us safe of course!!).
People need to be accountable for their actions not protected by insanely stoopid rules. Let evolution kill off the idiots.........

You could use my tophat sail it to qld from syd. I get 2 weeks aboard in whitsundays around july/aug. You sail back to brizzy. I fly up sail back home when the northerlies kick in around october/nov. In a simple nutshell.

Where do you plan to start? There are more TopHats available in NSW, and the registration seems easiest. Once you have bought the boat, you will need a little time to check that the boat is seaworthy, and do any mods/maintenance required.

Sydney is very expensive, so somewhere North of Sydney will be cheaper for slipping and time on the hard. Also away from Sydney they are more inclined to let you work on the boat yourself.

Insurance for a boat under $10,000 purchase price is sometimes hard to get, but I would presume you want to buy a boat with minimal work required, and hence the price would be in that region. Insurance providers generally want a recent survey done, but sometimes you can get that with the boat. Almost all slipways will not touch the boat unless you have insurance.

The TopHat web site www.tophatyachts.com/ has lots of information. Also many at that site, or here, will be happy to take a quick look at boats you could be interested in.

Wow, I wasn't expecting such an avalanche of replies. Thanks to everyone for giving me advice and a lot of options to consider.

I'll look into club marine insurance, and email some insurance brokers.

Perhaps buying a Tophat in NSW is the best option. There seem to always be a few for sale in the Lake Macquarie area...

I'll have to look into transferring registration to Canada, as although I have relatives in Sydney...I wouldn't be a resident of either NSW or QLD. But if I could register my boat in Canada it seems I'd have enough time to see the QLD coast before selling her or sailing on.

The plan was to arrive on a 6 month tourist visa, buy a Tophat in the neighbourhood of $10k, spend a month or so at a marina/boatyard checking/prepping her...then spend May-August mostly gunkholing north. Eventually maybe heading towards Indonesia in the end, boat condition and confidence willing.

Tophat site takes a few days

Hi Liquidator,
If your rego to the Top Hat site hasn't been approved yet(did one today), PM me here & i'll look for it & approve.
we get that many automated spam bots trying to register on the forum that I have to do it manually,
cheers
Shaun (top hat site admin)

Remember if you are getting insurance you will need the boat to be surveyed to obtain insurance so you can gain a birth in a marine when you want one .
Right up the east coast and the rest of Australia
I don't think any one explained that in this thread you may have already known that

HG02 said..
Remember if you are getting insurance you will need the boat to be surveyed to obtain insurance so you can gain a birth in a marine when you want one .
Right up the east coast and the rest of Australia
I don't think any one explained that in this thread you may have already known that

You don't need a survey for 3rd party property. That's all you need for marinas and slips.

I was told by 1 insurance company i needed to survey boat for any insurance due to the boats age

Ramona said..

Sectorsteve said..
I was told by 1 insurance company i needed to survey boat for any insurance due to the boats age

I'm with Apia and my boat was built in 1979. With 3rd party you are covering other peoples boats not your own. New boats come off moorings at the same rate as old ones!

Are APIA covering you being on a swing or double ended mooring??

I only have APIA third party property to cover me against marine incidents and for a policy that will allow me to get into marinas. I don't think they are covering me on my mooring.