Small boat registration

Bit of a spurious one this
My brother who knows nothing about sailing or boats in general has taken a small tender with small outboard to his place in Spain for pottering fishing etc.
Now he finds he can't legally use it without it being registered, and the local port authority are telling him they can't do it it has to come from country of origin, or evidence of exemption in that country.
They are also telling him that the UK will also be bringing in a similar registration system any time soon! To which I laughed.

Can anyone shed any light?
Are we about to have government dinghy registration foisted on us?
Anyone know how to provide evidence that a 2.8m inflatable is registration exempt in Blighty?

serious dinghy  racers  often SSR stuff  - presumably  for  such purposes 

also using stuff o nthe Baords or CRT (ex BWB )  canals  requires registration 

Originally posted by 423zero Watched something on TV a couple of weeks ago about the thousand of abandoned boats all round the coast, boat registration could prevent this.

Blasphemy! Never Ever say that again!

People have died to keep us free from Government Regulation ffs.

Have you any idea how much they'd like to get their greasy expense fiddling gold plated pension bed wetting hands on us as an income stream?

Now go to your room and right a thousand lines 'No Government Regulation of small craft.'

My new N12 (2020) had to have a serial number engraved on the stern which details builder ID, unique number (not sail no) and  month & year of build. Perhaps it is the case for all new small boats, pretty sure the Laser / ILCA has the same on the stern.

The RYA's stance:

Edited by Chris_H - 07 Jul 21 at 10:50am