Before I sailed to France to gio down to the Med I spoke to RYA legal section and they told me that the people who have problems with this are the ones who have a house in France or Spain and are resident there but have a British flagged boat.Basically provided liveaboards keep a low profile and - if asked - are 'on passge' to another country you are ok - unless you meet the Douanier from hell! When I got there and was in France for nearly a year this advice held good.Was boarded after about 8 months in country by Douaniers - no probs - told them I was wintering and then off to Spain in the spring.They were happy with that,checked all my papers and left.

The ones who did have a problem were the Americans - from talking to some of them in Barcelona they were very likely to get pinged for some reason.

But the bottom line is that 183 days in any one year in any one country and you are in play.

Having said that loads of boats have been there for years continuously without problems.