Panama and Cayman Islands

Consider, yes. Do, no. The only reason to do so for me would have been to have foreign crew, pay them less, and provide them fewer benefits.

We have 6000 US employees and just weren't about to do that. We have US crew, US pay, US benefits.

THIS. I see no reason to foreign flag anymore as there are few benefits if any and many downfalls.

It's cheap enough to flag your yacht in the U.S. I have foreign customers (C.A.) that are flagging their yacht in a Delaware Corporation, it is incredibly cheap. I'm not involved in any of that, but they're Delaware registered. The other option which I had Michigan owners do, they set up a FL LLC and documented the boat in Florida and paid the one time $18k sales tax.

Then I had a customer with a 37' whaler flagged in BVI and it was a royal pain in the ass, had to take it to the Bahamas once a year, clear customs, spend half a day dicking around with getting a cruising permit, etc. etc.

We did st Vincent and i wouldn’t do it again. I will say in ft Lauderdale you can choose from a much bigger pool of foreign crew. In my experience stews who have spent many seasons in the med are amazing. So i don’t agree with olderboater that it about cheaper, just more to choose from.

But the cruising permits and other stuff is a pain in the ass and i will flag US on my next boat. Which won’t be a charter boat so crew selection isn’t important.

It absolutely is cheaper to have foreign crew. It's why charterers do so. You can find them for less salary and then on top of that you avoid payroll taxes. The employer's side of payroll taxes is around 10% plus by the employee being subject to US taxes their take home is reduced and so they require greater pay to equalize take home pay. Complying with US Wage and Hour overtime laws is another cost. Some of the crew would not be exempt and would require time and a half for hours over 40 in a week.

As to crew selection, we've had no problem finding fine US crew, but we do provide excellent pay and benefits.

So are you saying you have hired foreign crew who have come to Fort Lauderdale looking for work?