The U.S. Superyacht Association reports that on August 13, President Trump signed into law a bill that will allow American superyacht owners to finally fly an American flag and register their yachts over 300 GT in the United States.
“This has been a significant issue that the U.S. Superyacht Association (USSA) has spent nearly a decade working to correct,” said Kate Pearson, USSA chair and vice president of business development of Safe Harbor Marinas. “We are thrilled to have been an integral part of helping to finally make it a reality and are pleased that yacht owners will no longer be chased from American shores to other countries to flag their vessels.”
USSA explains that until now, U.S. law defined a yacht as a vessel whose volume was a maximum of 300 GT. That law was written in 1920, but was never updated. Americans owning yachts exceeding the 300-GT limit were only able to fly the U.S. flag if they registered their yacht as a commercial vessel. However, commercial vessels such as cargo ships were, and are, held to different operational and construction standards than recreational ones. Therefore, many owners and their advisors did not find this to be a reasonable solution. While a handful of owners in recent decades did pursue acts of Congress for their personal vessels as exemptions, this route is both arduous and expensive and not the right solution for most superyacht owners.
“The economic impact of more large yachts flagging U.S. could be significant, as these large vessels would now provide more high-profile opportunities for American crew, keep yachts traveling in U.S. waters, and spend more time in our repair and refit yards,” stated Kitty McGowan, president of the USSA.
American superyacht owners are delighted to see the outdated law receive an overhaul as well. “For at least a half century, ridiculous regulations prohibited American citizens from displaying their patriotism by flying an American flag on their yacht,” remarked Tilman J. Fertitta, a longtime passionate yacht owner, star of the TV show Billion Dollar Buyer, and sole owner of Landry’s Restaurants and the Houston Rockets. “With the new legislation, that ends. American yacht owners can now proudly proclaim their citizenship on their yachts. Thank you to all those that made this possible and to President Trump for eliminating over 50 years of bureaucratic red tape. This is truly an historic day for American yacht owners and the yachting industry.”