Boat Name and Location

[zeehag]

documented boats require hailing ports accessible by usps. must be able to get mail delivery. not necessarily your mail.,. but mail. mine is santa barbara despite the fact i never lived there--boat did for a while, however, so i kept the home port same.
if changing home port were not 85 usd to do, i would change it to somewhere more unique.
you could use palm springs.

[a64pilot]

I like
EARTH tx.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by JiffyLube

I think that with documented boats, the location should be where the boat will be kept or its home port.

It's OK for you to think that but as others have posted, it can be any place in the USA.

I have seen boats with home ports that could not possibly be reach by that boat unless it was put on a truck.

[Island Time O25]

USCG allows as a hailing port any place in US which is a census designated postal location i.e. if it has a post office whatever the name it can be used as a hailing port. I later found out that it does not even have to be a separate municipality or town but a subdivision within one as long as there is a post office with a name of a neighborhood location to which USPS will deliver.

If you're paying to paint the port location by the letter it makes sense to put Rye, NY or Rye, NH to save some $$$.

[Shrew]

Originally Posted by GreatKetch

Internet advice is always worth what you pay for it.

And in this case it is 100% wrong. There is no restriction at all on where a documented boat's home port "should be", other than in the US. It has NOTHING to do with where the boat is kept.

I'll put the link here AGAIN so people who chose to answer questions without a clue can read it: USCG National Vessel Documentation Center, FAQ Page

I agree. In the US you can document the boat anywhere. However, the hailing port on the boat needs to match the hailing port on the USCG documentation. Whether you choose you're residential address, or boat 'mooring' location is up to you.

The issue is that there can be only one unique vessel name per hailing port. So if you keep the boat in Miami, FL. and there is already a boat registered with your vessel name you either need to rename you boat, or register in a different hailing port.

I've seen plenty of very large boats, including yachts, with hailing ports such as "Denver. Co; Salt Lake City, Ut, etc. Obviously these boats aren't sailing to/from these cities.

General Locations should be acceptable (e.g. Block Island, RI; The township is actually "New Shoreham, RI").

If the boat is not documented, you can place whatever location (or no location) you want. My boat is not documented, and I have no location on it. You can even use the same name and location as a vessel documented in that location if you want.

[JstaRebel]

This is all good information for me.. My boat is registered with USVI as home port (USPS is there) However, my boat was Christened in Bermuda, and her name plaque says so to this day. I've been boarded by USCG before and nothing has ever been said about it. Guess I've been lucky that I've not been arrested and fined!! Rules are made to be bent.. Especially by sailors.

[Island Time O25]

This is what the law says (from the gov't printing office).
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-20...-sec67-119.xml

§ 67.119 Hailing port designation.
(a) Upon application for any Certificate of Documentation in accordance with subpart K of this part, the owner of a vessel must designate a hailing port to be marked upon the vessel.
(b) The hailing port must be a place in the United States included in the U.S. Department of Commerce's Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 55DC.
(c) The hailing port must include the State, territory, or possession in which it is located.
(d) The Director, National Vessel Documentation Center has final authority to settle disputes as to the propriety of the hailing port designated.
(e) Until such time as the vessel owner elects to designate a new hailing port, the provisions of paragraph (c) of this section do not apply to vessels which were issued a Certificate of Documentation before July 1, 1982.