Interpretation of the provisions on re-entry of officially deleted boats in the register

When in 2019 the Act on Amendments to the Maritime Code came into force, the Register of ships was established as a single registration point for all maritime craft of Croatian nationality. Therefore, all ships, which previously had been entered in the boat ledger, were transferred to the Register of ships. At the beginning of 2020, when such a single Register of ships came into use, the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure issued a special Ordinance regulating the entry of ships into register, maximum permitted age and technical specifications for entry of ships into the Croatian Register of ships. At the end of 2020, the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, in compliance with the Maritime Code, officially deleted from the Register of ships about 20,000 boats whose owners did not have harmonized data or did not have a correct or non-existent personal identification number (PIN). The Ordinance prescribes the procedure for re-entry of boats in the Register of ships, with special provisions relating to such cases. At the beginning of 2021, and after the official deletion of such boats from the Register of ships, the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure sent the Instructions on the procedure after the decision on the official deletion of maritime crafts to all Harbour Master Offices. The Instruction, inter alia, requires from the Harbour Master Offices to perform an occasional inspection of boats on the basis of their request for re-entry. The author considers such an Instruction disputable and considers that it does not correctly interpret the provisions on re-entry of ships in the Register after the official deletion of such boats from the Register of ships, more precisely that it does not properly interpret the provisions of a special Ordinance prescribing the mentioned procedure. Therefore, this paper gives an overview of the contested provisions as well as the corresponding interpretations in accordance with the Maritime Code and by-laws adopted on its basis.