HQ 111843: Applicability of the coastwise laws to the use of a non- coastwise-qualified sailboat in the territorial waters of the United States as a mobile medical office.

Native CBP ruling rendition. Applicability is fact-specific; modification/revocation relationships and original publisher date are retained. Publisher sentinel year0001 means unknown date, not a historical legal adoption.

                            HQ 111843

                         January 9, 1992

VES-3-15/VES-3-21  CO:R:IT:C  111843 BEW

CATEGORY:  Carriers

Dr. Michael S. Hefferman
620 E. Market
Rockport, Texas 78382

RE:  Applicability of the coastwise laws to the use of a non-
     coastwise-qualified sailboat in the territorial waters of
     the United States as a mobile medical office.

Dear Dr. Hefferman:

     This is in reference to your affidavit dated October 3,
1991, in which you requested a ruling on the applicability of the
coastwise laws to the use of a non-coastwise-qualified sailboat
as a mobile office for the purpose of providing professional
psychological services at dockside.

FACTS:

     You state the subject vessel will be used at two or three
ports of call.  You state the vessel will be used as a mobile
office.  You state that the vessel will only be underway when it
is moved to the next place of business.

ISSUE:

     May a non-coastwise-qualified sailboat be used as a mobile
medical office in the territorial waters of the United States
without violating the coastwise laws?

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

     Generally, the coastwise laws (e.g., 46 U.S.C. App. 289 and
883, and 46 U.S.C. 12106 and 12110) prohibit the transportation
of merchandise or passengers between points in the United States
embraced within the coastwise laws in any vessel other than a
vessel built in and documented under the laws of the United
States, and owned by persons who are citizens of the United
States.

     Under the provisions of 46 U.S.C. App. 289, no foreign
vessel shall transport passengers between ports or places in the
United States, either directly or by way of a foreign port.  The
penalty for violating this section of the law is $200 for each
passenger so transported and landed.

     Pursuant to 46 U.S.C. 12106 and 12110 and their
predecessors (46 U.S.C. 65i and 65m and, before them, 46 U.S.C.
11) and consistent with 46 U.S.C. App. 883, the coastwise
merchandise law, the Customs Service has consistently held that
the prohibition in 46 U.S.C. App. 289, applies to all non-
coastwise-qualified vessels.  Non-coastwise-qualified vessels
include any vessel other than a vessel built in, properly
documented under the laws of, owned by citizens of the United
States, and never sold foreign with certain exceptions (46
U.S.C. 12106(a)(2)(B) a 19 CFR 4.80(a)(2) and (3)).

     In interpreting the coastwise laws as applied to the
transportation of passengers, we have ruled that the carriage of
passengers entirely within territorial waters, even though they
disembark at their point of embarkation and the vessel touches no
other point, is considered coastwise trade subject to the
coastwise laws.  The transportation of passengers to the high
seas or foreign waters and back to the point of embarkation,
often called a "voyage to nowhere," is not considered coastwise
trade, assuming the passengers do not go ashore, even
temporarily, at another coastwise point.

     A point in United States territorial waters is considered a
point in the United States embraced within the coastwise laws
but a point beyond those waters, even if it is within the United
States Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), is not considered to be
such a point, with certain exceptions inapplicable in this
context (see, e.g., the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of
1958, as amended; 43 U.S.C. 1333, and the amendments to 46
U.S.C. App. 883 regarding the transportation of valueless or
dredged material effected by Public Law 100-329).

      The territorial waters of the United States consist of the
belt, 3 nautical miles wide, adjacent to the coast of the United
States and seaward of the territorial sea baseline.  The recent
Presidential Proclamation (dated December 27, 1988) proclaiming a
12 nautical mile territorial sea extended the jurisdiction of the
United States only for international purposes and did not extend
or change existing federal and state laws.  The territorial
waters of the United States continue to be 3 nautical miles wide,
for purposes of the applicability of the coastwise laws.

     The vessel under consideration, as a non-coastwise-
qualified, would be precluded from engaging in the coastwise
trade.  Under the circumstances stated above, you may not use the
vessel in the coastwise trade if, as is true in this case, it is
not qualified to engage in the coastwise trade.  As noted above,
46 U.S.C. App. 289, prohibits the transportation between points
in the United States of passengers in a non-coastwise-qualified
vessel.

      "Passenger," for purposes of this provision, is defined as
"...any person carried on a vessel who is not connected with the
operation of such vessel, her navigation, ownership, or business"
(19 CFR 4.50(b)).

     The Customs Service has consistently held that the use of a
non-coastwise-qualified vessel as a permanently moored facility
does not violate the coastwise laws, or any other law
administered by the Customs Service, provided that the vessel
remains stationary.  Customs also has held that if the vessel is
being loaded or unloaded and must be moved to another location
because of stress of weather or other reason involving the
vessel's safety, subsequently is returned to the same point to
continue its loading or unloading, and neither loads nor unloads
merchandise at any other point in the United States, the
coastwise laws are not violated.

     Although the vessel will not be engaging in coastwise trade
while in operation as a stationary "mobile medical office", the
point should be made that by virtue of its being anchored within
territorial waters, the vessel itself will become a coastwise
point.  The practical effect of this fact is that any vessel
moving merchandise or passengers between the moored sailboat and
another coastwise point (in either direction), must itself be
documented for the coastwise trade.

     Under the circumstances stated above, an undocumented U.S.-
built vessel not qualified to engage in the coastwise trade can
be used as a permanently moored "medial office", without
violating the statute.  No law or regulation administered by the
United States Customs Service would preclude the use of the
permanently moored sailboat as a medical office.

HOLDING:

     A non-coastwise-qualified sailboat may be used as a
permanently moored "medical office within the territorial waters
of the U.S. without violating the coastwise laws of the United
States.

                                     Sincerely,



                                     B. James Fritz
                                     Chief
                                     Carrier Rulings Branch