Thoughts on a "fun" hailing port for a non-documented sailboat?

[billknny]

You might not be aware that there is an Inverness, California. So even if you do go the USCG documentation route you could keep the Gaelic flavor....

[jmschmidt]

You can have any name or word that you want on a US documented vessel, it's only significance is for visual identification and confirmation of the boat should an incident arise. However, there are dozens of boats documented with the exact same name, rendering the hailing port only partially useful for identification purposes.

I like "Two Dot", Montana.

[marlin driver]

Originally Posted by CaptainJohn49

I have a suspicion that a copy of the USCG decimation request was sent to the state of California because I listed my hailing port as Alameda, CA. I’ve also heard stories that the marinas send a list of boats with owner, boat name and hailing port to the state for cross-reference.

I don’t know if this will make you feel better or worse, but this would have gone exactly the same way regardless of your hailing port. The marinas do provide rent rolls to the assessor’s office, and the tax guys walk the docs in early January to make sure every boat is listed. They don’t care what the hailing port is, you owe sales/use tax if you buy your boat here and annual property tax if you keep it here. Washington is equally tough, btw.

[nic26]

Originally Posted by Kupe

Hey gang-

We are about to get our boat's name applied on the transom of our 1984 Tartan 28. The boat is state registered only in Georgia, USA near Atlanta. State regulations require only the registration number and sticker- no name or hailing port is required.

So, we were thinking of having a little fun with the hailing port. Our boat's name is of Gaelic origin, so we're thinking of going with a hailing port of Inverness. Yes, I realize we'll have to redo that if we ever take her to the coast and want to get her Federally Documented. But other than that, other pros, cons, or thoughts?

Cheers!

Want to be unique?

Llanfair*pwllgwyngyll*gogery*chwyrn*drobwll*llan*t ysilio*gogo*goch

it is a large village and local government community on the island of Anglesey in Wales.

[Wyamba]

How about Brigadoon or Tir na nOg (Irish land of eternal youth).

[George DuBose]

I saw a Hinckley whose homeport was Salt Lake City. Wondered how they sailed out of there...;>)

[SV Siren]

Back in the day I used to crew on a red Pearson named "Devils Advocate" owned by an attorney, that we raced that had a hailing port of Hell, Michigan...we used to have fun with that every now and then.

[Scaramanga F25]

I can assure you that the boat police can be friendlier to locals in anchorages where out of state cruisers hang around (in So Fla) too long are harassed.

Salt Lake City...tax dodge.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by gamayun

Funny. My home is in Havana, FL, which is high and dry and many miles from any navigable waterway. My hailing port is Montara, CA, which doesn't have a harbor but it does have a lighthouse. I thought a hailing port had to at least have navigable water nearby?

Not sure how you define 'many miles' but my boat's home port is St. Marks which is around 30 miles from Havana; less from Tallahassee. Depending on traffic it takes me maybe 40-45 minutes to drive there from Killearn, probably another 15-20 to Havana.

I visited a friend in Los Angles and it took us a couple of hours to drive to the marina where his boat was.

[Don1500]

For years I had a 47' trawler that hailed from Shinicock Bay, NY. No such town exist. This was a Documented vessel.

[Smokeys Kitchen]

Given the winners at the Oscars, maybe having a boat from Wakanda would be good.

[Georgiamarie]

As Montanan says, on a documented vessel, you can make the hailing port anywhere you want. There is no requirement that the boat is or ever has been physically located at what you designated as your hailing port.

[Colonel Bob]

Originally Posted by tomfl

If you document a boat the hailing port has to be a real place according to the US official list. Since it is 12 miles from my home I considered using the town of Havana, Florida as the hailing port.

Basically a documented vessel can use any US location (think zipcode). While berthed at Annapolis I kept my transom with WEST POINT, NY pointed at the USNA squids at all times.

[chris14679]

My favourite one ever is one I heard making a distress call on the VHF radio in the English channel. The name of the boat was:

Maid of Crete

I'm pretty certain it was a ferrocement boat :-)

[Amaleo]

If the boat already has Atlanta as the hailing port on it, just change it to Atlantis and have done. My boat is "Nai'a" which is Hawaiian for dolphin even though there are no porpoises there. Like many other cruisers, it is registered in Delaware, but the hailing port is "Erehwon" or nowhere.