1st Canadian Marinaut @ new home

C

Canadian Teal

New member
We ordered our boat (we THINK Marinaut hull#8) in late 2013 and took final delivery in August 2014 at EQ Marine. All intermediate steps were greatly assisted by advice from Les.

For shake-down, we spent about a week in US waters going progressively far-afield in the San Juans. (inside waters along Whidbey, followed by a circumnav of Lopez). Desecption Pass Marine Park is a great base for this, especially mid-week.

Some info-advice (valid-at-the-time) to other prospective Canadian buyers:
1) Marinaut is a really nice boat, worth dealing with X-border barriers
2) We bought our Honda 115 in Canada to avoid x-border warrantee issues. Apparently these no longer exist for Honda or Tohatsu, but check on the day.
3) We bought our EZ Loader trailer from EQ Marine and imported it. This was a BIG hassle in terms of time and miles-driven. Canadian importation and inspection/licensing could not happen on the same day, so required two empty trailer trips from Whidbey Island to BC mainland. Probably simpler to buy & register same model trailer in Canada, and pay EQ Marine a reasonable sum for trailer tuning.
4) In contrast, importing the boat into Canada was remarkably easy & cheap (we took ferry from Anacortes ->Sidney BC and did the 'import' at nearby Victoria Airport).
5) For Canadian boat registration (essential BEFORE you can operate in Canadian waters; shake-down in US waters was covered by a temporary EQ Marine certification), you can do a 2-3 week (or longer) snail mail registration via New Brunswick, or find a Canadian dealer who can do immediate on-line-registration-fo -fee. We did the latter, and got same-day registration plus number decals for about $C100.


After entering-registering in Canada, we took the boat up to non-tidal Cowichan Lake on Vancouver Island. After some self-training , we then went on to various destinations in the Canadian Gulf Islands. Both Wallace Island and Montague Harbour were multi-night treats, with drop-ins at various wharfs and inlets elsewhere in the Canadian Gulf Islands.

Following Feb 2014 break-in at our Lake Cowichan cabin, we had a rethink about boat security when people are absent. We are now mostly through the process of designing and building a 'Marinaut House' beside our home. Pictures will follow once I figure out how to add them.

Newest news - a recall notice for axles on our EZ-Loader trailer. So-far seems a major annoyance, but not much risk to us nor to next-year boating. More on this later (and on above, once I figure out how to include photos).
 
Thanks for the update. Looking forward to some boat pics...once you figure it out.

Maybe this is correct:

First you have to have a photo album, which you may have to get one of our administrators to set up for you...and, if not, or if you can set it up on your own...sorry...I simply remembered wrong.
I have found it easiest to put a photo albumn (folder) on my desk top, named it C-Brat. Deep thought in naming the folder... not necessary, but it makes it easy for me to keep my C-brat album without having to sort thru my some 400-500 photo albums. Yes, I like taking pictures.

On that note: I have lost pictures in the past and the only way I had a copy was on my C-Brat Photo Album named FREEBYRD. Now, they will be re-sized and may not be of quality to go get a 8x10 print for the wall made, but, I still have access to the photos!...and all my Brat friends photos too!

Once you have photo folder set up by administrator it is sort of like just looking at other's photos...

Hit the blue line on home page that reads - Photo
Come down and click on the - Our C-Dory Albums
You will see numbers ranging from 1-10...
Photo albums are lined up alphabetically... mine is on page 13...
so I have to click 10..then keep going to next page of albums until on page 13 where my album FREEBYRD is found.
Hit that folder and look at drag down box ...touching drag down menu until it reads - ADD PHOTO & choose that one.
Another screen pops up... where you can up load 5 photos at a time &
this is where you hit the CHOOSE FILE option... picking out your photo album on your desk top...if you made one. The little caption box under the name of the file to up load let's you put a few words there as to name the photo or briefly describe it.

Or... there may be a much simpler way... I sure would like to know how I can get to page 13 without having to go thru the rest of the albums...or...if I want to find someone who may have a folder named ZAZINSKI or something....and have to scroll thru all photo albums.

Anyway...congrats on your boat, you should love it, look forward to pictures.
Byrdman[/u]
 
Your album gets linked to your signature (on the left of the screen). That gives you a direct link to your (or anyone else's) album.

Is would be nice if there was a way to search the albums without paging through them. Keywords on photos maybe.
 
Congratulations on the boat, Les does an amazing job. We will be up in the Gulf Islands the third week of July, I'll keep my eye open for another Marinaut.
 
I enjoyed your post. We will be in the market for probably a C-25 in a couple of years. Ideally I would like to buy one in Canada, but the selection south of the border is much greater. Interesting to note that bringing the boat into Canada was less of a hassle than bringing the trailer in. I was wondering after I read this if a person could put the whole boat and trailer combo on a flatbed car hauling trailer and bring everything across the border that way. It might avoid a lot of hassle. I expect that I will likely buy a boat somewhere in the US and then bring it to Alberta and eventually to Vancouver island once I retire there. I would like to have it here in Alberta for several reasons. The first is that i can play with it sooner. I would like to explore some of the lakes in the west and get comfortable with the boat before I put it into salt water and have to deal with currents and tides. Secondly, as Alberta does not have a sales tax, I can import it here for less money. If I own it here for 2 years before I move to BC I can bring it tax free to BC as settlers effects. I can have more fun with the money than the government can. Enjoy your Marinaut, Les gave us a great tour of the factory and we really like this boat. But, being 6'5" in need something with a little more headroom.

Cheers,
 
Doubt that bringing boat+trailer into Canada on a flat deck or rail car would save you much time, and might cost you extra money. The problem is that Canada classifies trailers as motor vehicles, for which the importation process (specified by Registrar of Imported Vehicles = RIV, part of federal Transport Ministry) requires 4 steps in sequence:
1) Application to Registrar of Imported Vehicles (can be done via internet) and payment of nominal fee. At this stage you get assigned a case number and say where you plan to cross the border and approximately when.
2) physical importation of trailer (done at the border,through Canada Border Services) and payment of duty (if any)
3) Inspection of trailer for road-worthiness and payment of inspection fee. This is done for RIV by a certified contractor, typically a Canada Tire garage.
4) Provincial licensing, issue of plates, showing/buying proof of insurance, and payment of provincial sales taxes. We did this at the closest ICBC office, a bit slow because the office lacked nearby parking for truck and trailer, and the agent was confusing actual trailer weight, with boat+trailer load rating

The main timing problem is that step 3 at Canada Tire requires a 'permission to inspect' slip from RIV, which RIV won't issue until a day or so AFTER they have received a FAXed copy of the Border Services import paperwork. So 1-2 day delay between steps 2 and 3, for which you would be paying the flat-deck to sit around. Depending on the Canada Tire outlet, might also be hard to maneuver a big flat-deck trailer.
 
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