bringing vessel in from US for business

Hopefully Mr Guzman will answer this for you however Im certain that you vessel must be of Dominican flag to work here and ITS GOING TO BE VERY EXPENSIVE.check befire bringing it or be prepared to get royaly screwed.
J.h.

I, too, will let Fabio Guzman give the legal answer, but based on what I learned during years of living aboard in Samana, anyone who brings in a vessel for commercial purposes must flag the vessel in the Dominican Republic. There seems to be some difference in how much this actually costs, depending on how well connected you are, but you are wise to be looking into this subject before bringing the vessel.

Looking at it from the standpoint of the Dominican Republic, if foreign owners were allowed to bring their vessels to the Dominican Republic to conduct excursions, they would probably soon put Dominican boat owners out of business. That will not be allowed to happen.

Several years ago on one of the other islands of the Caribbean there was a great deal of trouble because the playing field for foreign vessel owners was pretty much on a par with the local owners. When the locals started being squeezed out, the foreign owners started having explosions, etc., that destroyed their boats. There are now laws that give better protection to the foriegn owners there.

Dominican registration is a must. Another requirement is a permit from the Department of Tourism. In short, you should establish yourself to do business in the Dominican Republic.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. I wonder where Captain Larry is??? He had a hell of a time...

HB

Last I recall the cost of registering equaled the price of the bOAt.Fabio?
J.H.

It can, Johnny, but as I said above, I know people in the tourism industry well connected enough to substantially reduce the cost.

Ialso know some very well conected people however you usualy save your favors for when you need them,I dont know many who do anything for free.
J.H:bandit:

Like Johnny says, don't plan on getting any breaks. The people I know have been living here for a long time and have built up relationships over the years. Nobody that I know with connections would use up whatever good will he has by "spending" it on behalf of another person.

You mentioned attaching your vessel to a resort. If the use of your vessel is a high priority of the resort, then they may be able to do something to ease the way for you--especially if it makes the difference between their being able to offer a program to their guests or not.

Thanks Ken (and everyone), I have a meeting set up for the end of this month with Casa de Campo who seem very interested on the phone and in e-mails. Does anyone have any contacts within the resort they would be willing to share. I understand if you don't, but as you all well know it is very difficult for someone like myself to come in regardless of my idea and what it will do for the resort, and to get anyone to give me the time of day.