I do not understand why work permits are necessary unless you are being compensated for your work. When I was traveling internationally with Disney actors, the only time work permits were required was when there was some reason to believe our actors were doing a job that could have been performed by a local -- in our case, this was never possible since the actor was representing a role played by his/herself. Work permits were easily avoided.

This seems impossible to enforce. How on earth can you keep an owner from repairing his or her OWN boat? It's not as though they are PAYING THEMSELVES to do the work and therefore taking work away from a local? Where can they draw the line? You're not allowed to BARBEQUE on your boat because a belonger might be hired to come out and BARBEQUE FOR YOU??

This is ridiculous...coming from someone who has had to push back MANY times on work permit "requirements"....I wish them good luck with this one....since "work" can be defined as changing a light bulb for some....I do believe that some form of compensation to the "owner" for doing this work will have to be proved in order for them to enforce this. As Walker pointed out in a separate thread..."work" could be defined as sweeping the floor if they're going to be this vague. I think this will end up being more about the crew on "Below Decks" needing permits to "work" than some poor sod who's trying to unclog the head on his own 35 footer <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />