A couple of things. For the first 'big boat' I bought I used the seller's broker to file for transfer of the USCG Cert of Doc which he handled quickly, but charged $625 which I thought was fine at the time until I realized that worked out to about $300 an hour for his time. Call NVDC and get your info there and dwnld forms you need online.
However, unless your are certain you will be taking your
boat into foreign waters, I don't really see the point of
documentation. Tx now charges about $60/yr to sport numbers on the
hull, despite
current Certs of Doc. So, if you decide to let the CoDoc die, with a good bill of
sale (I would reco using the one offered on USCG website) you or previous owner, not sure who, can file w USCG for Letter of Deletion which is required in this case for a state title of
ownership and then
registration from any state (because they'll ask if
boat was ever Documented, you'll say yes, they'll want the Letter of Deletion). Big Point here is that even when renewal for
Documentation has lapsed, the boat is still under the careful administrative eye of the USCG and clerks at your state's Parks n Wildlife, Fisheries, whatever the name, will most likely, should check in on
current status of Documentation w USCG. If it turns out after you file for 'Letter' that USCG search finds any outstanding issues, any transfer of
ownership attempts will be blocked by USCG until they are satisfied that all paperwork, including any outstanding debt, is cleared up. This is one of the benefits of Documentation; hard for thieves to steal boats and get fresh, fake docs. And GUESS WHAT,, if there was ever a loan on the boat, say even 15 years ago, and even if it was paid off, but no one (w official proof from the lender) took the time to notify the USCG of satisfaction, no Letter of Deletion will be produced and therefore no transfer of ownership will take place in any form until that proof of loan satisfaction is submitted to USCG and approved by them.
If you want to know how I know this and what I was doing almost every other day for almost three months a couple of years ago, just ask.
If I ever buy another Documented vessel, I will check on these matters before writing the check, not after.
Best of Luck. Cheers, Pappy
p.s. Seller of boat to me was somehow in possession of a
Florida title (some clerk there must not have checked on expired/lapsed CoD) so he, seller, probably never knew about loan problem except that I doubt he checked the 'Yes" box re question "Was this boat ever Documented."
Linear Mode
Recent Discussions