You need to have the
current owner deflag the vessel. They then need to provide the deflagging documents to you with a signed Coast Guard bill of sale (form CG-1340). You then get an official translation done of the deflag document, and send all three of those things to the Coast Guard to register the vessel. You will also need to go through a separate process with customs to
import the vessel, although since your vessel was built in the U.S. you may be able to skip that step. Don't forget you also need to register the boat in most states, even though it is Coast Guard documented. In
Maryland you need an
original bill of sale for that as well, absolutely non-negotiable on the
original part, so you'll want to probably get two original copies of that. You'll want that even if you plan to do an around the world and won't be in the U.S. for a long time, because again you won't be able to track this stuff down later.
I would highly recommend you pay the few hundred bucks to a good agency to do this for you. I worked with Kimberly at ASAP
Marine in
Miami and can't recommend her highly enough, and as I mentioned I am a retired Coast Guard officer and still didn't know all the tricks she did. The other reason an agency helps is because you need some kind of independent third party to act as escrow and you may not want it to be the
broker in Tahiti. The owner isn't going to want to do the deflag, and then send it to you with the CG bill of sale until they are sure they're getting their
money, rightly enough. You absolutely don't want to give them a dime until you have every piece of paperwork in order, otherwise it will be a nightmare
tracking it down. An agent takes care of all of that for a surprisingly reasonable rate and I would have happily paid 3 times more and been happy given the
service I got and the hassle I avoided. Good luck!