I can tell you that foreign built boats are chartered in US waters all of the time, and a 75 foot boat with Captain and crew is not particularly large or at all unusual in the charter business. I seriously doubt that chartering this boat will constitute a Jones Act violation.
I have no doubt that Kerry is trying to avoid the Massachusetts sales and excise tax, but he is by no means assured of success. In my home state of Maryland, a similar situation exists with respect to the State of Delaware. Delaware has no sales tax, and somebody buying a boat in Maryland can save the excise tax (which was 5 percent when I bought my boat but I think is now 6 percent) by buying the boat in Delaware and using a Delaware hail port in her documentation. However, Maryland is very aggressive about going after these boat owners if the boat shows up in Maryland waters with any regularity. The Maryland taxing authorities regularly send investigators to marinas to check the names and hail ports of boats docked there. They pay particular attention to boats from Delaware that have no Maryland stickers. Massachusetts undoubtedly does the same sort of thing with respect to Rhode Island. If the boat begins to show up in Nantucket, Kerry will get a tax bill.
It was posted as a question.
Obama was spouting off about how important the Jones Act was to his administration and in fact, it delayed action on the Gulf disaster... so I posed it as a question...
I threw it out there, and if he ever charters it to a party of 13... I hope he gets nailed for it. Time to hold the elites to the same rules that they stick us with.
Which you immediately follow with your own opinions and anecdote. No sources cited. Nice work!