Boat Number and Documentation

[smurphny]

Originally Posted by daddle

* Documentation may be required for financing.

* As boats under 10m/33ft cannot be documented, do you suppose such boats have never cruised internationally, obtained cruising permits, or checked in? Of course not.

* When I bought my documented boat the PO and broker had completely screwed up the documentation (as well as their sales tax liability, boat systems, permits....their mistake, my gain). These losers were unable to properly sign and notarize the transfer. The CG office rejected the title transfer documents. I had to sign something saying I guaranteed the title was proper. This may cause some problem later with somebody's financing because the chain of ownership is not completely notarized, but it got me the Certificate of Documentation I needed for cruising.

Doing a bit of surfing around, there are quite a few sites that make the statement that clearing into some countries is easier with doc. None of them provide any specifics as to WHAT places require documentation. Seems to be an area that needs another thread to put it out there to see if anyone has, in fact, ever had any difficulty because they were not documented. Your point about smaller boats is very true. There are quite a few small <5 ton ocean-goers that can't be documented. I registered last year in NY because the plan is to cruise down Florida way (where they are ticketing boats w/ no state reggy). If there really is no good reason to document, I will probably drop it next time. Doing it every year is a real PITA, especially if you're not in the US. NY registr. is good for 3 years. I wonder how this affects licenses, Epirb Regs, Homeland Security stickers, etc. Hmmmmmmm.