Brexit refugees – sign up at Onboard Space to get crew!

If you’re a yacht owner planning to get EU residence as Brexit refugees you could do well to look for crew on Onboard Space. 

From a yachting perspective I can’t think of a less sane thing to do than Brexit. Currently, UK citizens can sail anywhere they like from Romania in the East to Finland in the North and to southern Spain in the South. This is a vast cruising area that on a voyage including the inland waterways of Europe could take years.

Brexit limitations

As things stand, even if the dunces in government achieve a Brexit deal, UK citizens will be limited to touring the EU for 90 days in any six month period. OK, so not everyone has three months off every year but retired people and those taking a year or so out to cruise the world – a significant minority – will be severely limited. 

Another problem is that until Brexit comes it is very simple to leave your boat in a cruising location for years as you like. The RYA state that you will have to pay the VAT value + registration fees on your vessel if you want to leave your boat in an EU country after Brexit. That could be 20% or more just to cruise when you like as you like.

The bureaucracy of simply crossing between EU nations is currently reserved for sailors from the US and other non-EU member states. Will we need at least six months validity on our passports? What about crew lists, proof of health insurance and the other boggling things that are normally reserved for a Brit sailing across the Atlantic?

Brexit refugees – taking a sane solution?

But for my younger and older family I’d be a Brexit refugee, heading to an EU country to live to get away from the madness of Fortress Britain and its racist immigration policies. I’m watching dear friends escape for places like Italy, Spain and France just to enjoy the rights and privileges that our insane leaders seem to wish stripped from us. 

To join the Brexit refugees you would have to apply for a Residence permit in your chosen country, which often involves the condition of spending a lot of time in that country – often more than six months a year. You may have to pay the VAT on your boat but at least you have the freedoms of the Schengen borderless EU treaty. 

Use Onboard Space?

Refugees need friends in their country. Onboard Space is a community of yacht owners and crew who can connect on the platform. Where it comes to visiting or even moving to another country, this could enable Brexit refugees to find local (amateur) crew and get sailing in your new sailing grounds. 

We also have crew who can help with deliveries to get to your chosen sailing grounds. It can be quite difficult getting the crew to do a 1000+ mile trip from the UK to the Mediterranean for example. With Onboard Space the skipper signs up, pays a fee to connect with crew and then makes contact with them. It is a very simple process and could enable you to both make new friends in your target country and get to know the cruising grounds better. 

While the UK engages in this baffling act of self-harm to its status, people and economy, platforms like Onboard Space could well be your answer to a problem where mad men led by money men destroy any Greatness Britain once had.