Transferring a Vessel Registration

Transferring a vessel registration to or from a Red Ensign Group member Ship Register

What you need to know if you have a Part 1 registered vessel and are looking to transfer the registration from a Red Ensign Group member ship register to the UK Ship Register (UKSR), or are looking to transfer your vessel out to another Red Ensign Group member ship register.

About the Red Ensign Group (REG)

The Red Ensign Group (REG) is a group of British shipping registers that are operated by:

• The UK
• The Crown Dependencies (Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Jersey)
• UK Overseas Territories (Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, St Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands)

Any vessel on these registers is a “British ship” and is entitled to fly the British Merchant Shipping flag the “Red Ensign”, or a version of it defaced with the appropriate national colour. 

Transferring your vessel into the UK Ship Register

By transferring your vessel into the UK Ship Register you will have access to customer support as well as benefiting from the many advantages that the UK Flag offers.

If you are intending to transfer in from another REG member register to the UKSR, depending on the type of vessel (Merchant, Large Yacht or Pleasure), the registration process can vary.

A vessel must transfer in like for like, for example a commercial vessel must transfer to the UK as a commercial vessel and only Part 1 vessels can be transferred.

The vessel name must be unique within Part 1 of the UKSR and if the transferring in vessel has a name already in use in the UK, the vessel name will need to be changed to complete registration.

A vessel’s Official Number will remain the same on registers that are part of the Red Ensign Group.