felton wrote:

Not that I would recommend such a devious scheme, but in the world of
"what ifs"...

What if you sold the boat to a willing buyer, for say $10,000. At the
same time, the new buyer grants you an option to purchase the boat for
$10,000 and hires you to deliver the boat to Europe, where the new
buyer plans to cruise the boat. Plans change for unforeseen
circumstances once the boat is in Europe, say somewhere in the Antwerp
area, and you exercise your option to purchase the boat. The boat is
then registered in Belgium and tax is paid based on it's purchase
price of $10,000.

An alternative might be to sell a partnership interest to an American,
who could document the boat. Transport the boat to Europe. Register
the boat, terminate the partnerhsip.

I would hate to see you part with a boat for purely paperwork
complexities. Think form over substance...that is how the government
works

the first 'what if' scheme looks promising (at last a ray of light through the red tape). Let's say
I would go with this scenario and that I already had someone who would be willing to play along ...
would anybody be interested to crew (part of) the trip? (just remove the "no.s" from the email
adress to answer directly)

BTW: how did you know I was from the "say somewhere in the Antwerp area" ?

Frank