Replying from an Irish point of view as Kevin has. I looked into this in great detail earlier this year and cancelled sailing my unregistered boat to France as you absolutely need some form of registration to keep La Douane happy. It is to do with international maritime law as much as EU law, they just want paperwork that proves your origin and the French authorities have decided that the paperwork they want is national boat registration. Keep the UK registration.

You may not need to pay VAT if the boat is older than a certain date, look it up, I can't remember the detail.

The other issue is that to go down the French Canals you may need a VHF with ATIS 

https://www.french-waterways.com/practicalities/boats-equipment/

Anonymous wrote:

Hello,

I might have found a boat (not a junk yet) I like in the UK. She’s a 32’ ketch, relatively cheap and has plenty of charme, but also needs plenty of TLC. 

I live in Italy, and the idea is to sail across the channel and then cruise down the french canals to the med. 

In Italy a boat less than 10m in length does not to be registered (from a legal standpoint it is the same as a rubber dinghy). All you need to navigate is the insurance and the engine certificate (plus safety stuff like flotation devices etc. depending how far you sail from shore, 3 miles being the cut off).  

How do I, or rather the seller, get her off the the British Registry? 

And then -once that's done-  can I set off sails with the italian flag? (The boat is near Lymington, so I wouldn’t need to stay in UK waters too long). 

Thanks

Here in Ireland, most cruisers do not need registration, but some get registered anyway because the understanding is that we cannot sail to France or Spain, etc. without it.  And it also seems that Irish vessels should be registered to fly the flag outside UK and Ireland waters.

In the UK, the MCA is the main maritime regulator- and they have forms for de-registering a ship at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/application-to-remove-british-ship-from-uk-register-msf-47

But if my concern that you cannot take an unregistered vessel through France or Spain is correct, (something worth checking at least) then is it possible and would it be best to keep the UK registration until you get back to Italy?