Title and regristration

I need a bill of sale to register a boat/ get a title for it. How would I go about this if I made the boat myself?

 

you go to the licence beuro and applie for a home built boat ,,or you contact the us coast guard in west VA to document your boat longliner

 

re:

Thanks. Is the process quick and painless or do I have to pay fees and have people come out and inspect the boat to make sure it meets regulations etc?

 

The boat's a home built, eh?

If I'm not mistaken (I'm familiar with Canadian requirements, which are very similar to American but not identical), you need the following:

- A capacity plate (or whatever you call it down there) stating the safe load and power limits of the boat and assigning it a HIN. Around here, you get this by taking some measurements of the hull on a one-page form, send that and some photos to the gov't with a cheque for something like ten or twenty bucks, and a month later you get back a temporary letter saying your boat is legally allowed to exist. Early the next year you get a little square of plastic with the ratings on it that you glue to the inside of the transom.

- For vessels with 10 hp or more, a registration number. This is free up here- you just drop by the appropriate government office (Fisheries & Oceans, Transport Canada, Coast Guard- depends on who's in power in Ottawa, it changes now and then), say "I have a boat, I want to register it". They give you a 1/2 page form, takes six minutes to fill it out, get your number (the code you paint on the bow) and be done with it for life.

 

For a home built boat in Florida you go to the people who register boats and tell them it is aback yard built boat. They will ask you to sign a form that states you built the boat. They will assign it a hull identification number and a registration number and issue registration papers.

Take a look at this: Safety Standards For Back Yard Boat Builders. It will tell you what you need to know. http://newboatbuilders.com/docs/backyardboatbuilders.pdf This is a booklet no longer published by the Coast Guard but it has information on getting backyard built boats registered.

 

re:

Thanks. I've been thinking about buying a hull from a junkyard or something and repairing it as a sort of practice project before I do anything big. Do you know if the rules change if it's a pre manufactured hull? Or can I still register it as a homebuilt boat?

 

In Florida (and most other states) you will not get a "Z" HIN assigned, unless you can document the build, including material receipts, preferably with photos of the process, at least enough to convince the investigator you did the build.

If you have production hull, built after Oct 29, 1972, it will have a HIN assigned to it and this is the HIN it will have for its life. If you have a hull that was built previous to that you have a few hoops to jump through (forms to fill out) and a boat theft investigation to go though.

The reason, is pretty easy to steal a boat, cut off the HIN number, repair the area so no one knows and re-title the boat as junked.

If you built the boat yourself, then you need the documentation of the build and receipts for the materials in the boat. Engine, equipment, hardware, wood, fabrics and resin, everything as they're getting pissy about these things now. Your local "Tax Collector" will issue the title after inspection.

You will be asked to provide a "Builder's Certificate of Origin" to the inspector, which is usually to a Florida Fish and Wildlife officer (the inspector). Also you'll need to fill out "DEP Form 20-126-FMP" which must be submitted to the county tax collector along with "HSMV 82040" form and the associated fees.

You can't go to the junk yard, pick up a used hull and have it retitled with a new HIN or a Z HIN (home build HIN).

 

re:

Thanks, that really clears things up.
While I'm on the topic i'm also curious, what about foreign made boats? If I buy a boat or hull from another country do I just need a bill of sale and the registration from the other country?

 

You need a bill of sale, a statement of origin if not supplied with a US recognized HIN and the same loop jumping with the Fish and Wild Life officer and tax collector.

 

Somehow I got behind on this thread, but PAR got it right. Let's give an example here. If I go to an auto wrecking yard, buy a wrecked 57 chevy, completely rebuild it, is it still a 57 chevy? Of course it is.

It's the same with old boats or junk boats. Yes you have a nice boat with all new equipment but it's still an old boat.

Take a wood boat. Ever so often wood boats have to have planking, decking, frames etc replaced. You can replace all the planking on the hull but it doesn't make it a new boat.

Anyway. This question has come up hundreds of times while I was in the Office of Boating Safety.

 

re:

I just figured i'd ask to be sure. I mean, what if you made a frankenstein from the lower half of a 57 chevy and the upper half of a 75 dodge? Or the hull of a boat missing the transom and deck. Or a catarman from two different hulls.

Just incase someone knows, I did some extensive google searching. I found some mixed reports that boats from another country are allowed to enter US waters without US registration, HIN, or titleing. But other say you need a permit. Does anyone know the correct answer? And how do you get one of these permits? Google turned up nothing.

 

I cant help you on some of your questions ,,but one did raise a flag to me ,,you asked about foriegn made boats ,,you cannot commercial fish or charter a foriegn made boat in US waters,,I am not sure if you can sail to hire or allow 6 pack or bareboat charters with a foriegn made boat,,,,the law was made to protect the American boat building industry,,so that in time of war we would still be capable of boat production,,,longliner

 

John, I'm pretty sure the law has changed about the US built regulations. At least in regard to charters, as I've done it and went through a full blown 5 year IRS audit at the time, when everything including the color of the underwear I like best, was questioned.

Jaxboat, once again, even a gross rebuilding, incorporating several different boats will have one base boat, likely the lower hull portions, which will describe it as that particular hull as far as the HIN police are concerned. In your example of an upper half of a '75 Dodge and a lower half of a '57 Chevy, the officer would call it a 1957 Chevy, because the part that counts (the wetted areas on a boat) is '57 Chevy. In a car they'd use the frame manufacture, if there was a hand made body.

Replacing a deck or transom on a boat is repair work and done everyday, around the country. To you this may seem like a lot of work, but frankly it's a reasonably common repair and the boat is still the same boat, in spite of any efforts to mask this.

The Fish and Wild Life officer will get real pissy if you've removed the HIN from an old hull and haven't put it back on, so think about this. It's the same as removing the VIN from a car and trying to convince the inspector that you hand made the butchered '67 Camaro that he clearly sees sitting in front of him. Now, what do you think he going to do, pat you on the back and say "nice try" if you're lucky?

 

first take a look at my page on HINs http://newboatbuilders.com/pages/hin.html It will answer a lot of your questions.
Foreign built boats imported into the US FOR THE PURPOSE OF SALE are subject to exactly the same regulations as boats built in the US. They have to have a valid US HIN. If the boat is made in Canada the US recognizes Canadian HINs. However, if the boat comes from anywhere else in the world the US does not recognize HINs from other countries. The importer must get a valid manufacturer identification Code from the USCG and assign valid US HINs.

If you are bringing in a boat for yourself, you can get a home built boat HIN from the state just as if you built it. Again, Canadian HINs are accepted by the US and you don't need a new one from the state

Admittedly a lot of boats are brought in to the US and slip through the cracks. The average customs inspector may not know a valid HIN from one assigned in another country because they look exactly the same. The problem here is simpply one of, who is responsible for compliance with US law? The importer is. If the boat has an HIN beginning with ABC but assigned by say, Britain to a British company, and there is a company in the US who has the MIC ABC also, it can become confusing as to who the responsible party is. So if something goes wrong, the ABC company in the US gets a letter from the USCG and then has to say, well we didn't build that boat, and so on and so on. Then the USCG looks for who the importer is, but from the HIN they have no way of knowing unless it has a valid US HIN. And there is no central database of MICs assigned by the 70 some nations using the same 12 digit HIN format as the US. (unlike autos where manufacturer ID codes are issued by an international organization) So you can see it could become a problem very quickly. A lot of frauds are perpetrated based on what I said above. The USCG has a central database of US and Canadian assigned manufacturer ID codes so they know who made the boat and who is responsible for compliance.

On the other hand water cops in all of the states are specifically trained to know a valid HIN from a bogus one and can run an immediate check on the manufacturer. If the MIC fits a US maker who makes sport fisherman, and the boat is a sail boat, they know something is wrong. Plus that, stolen boats are reported to the FBI NCIC and the cop can run a check on that. So as Par said if the cop is looking at your rebuilt boat that is obviously an old Chris Craft, but has a state issued HIN, he's going to ask you some very pointed questions and may impound the boat.

So it is just simpler and easier to do it right and legal.

 

Oh yeah about the Jones Act. The Jones Act prohibits foreign built boats from being used in coast wise trade. Coast wise trade is defined very narrowly as trade from one US port to another with no intermediate stops. So if you go from Miami to Charleston you have to have a US built boat. However, if you go from Miami to Nassau, in the Bahamas, then to Charleston you can use a foreign built boat because it isn't coast wise trade.

There have been a few exceptions made for specialty and unique vessels. For instance in New York about 30 years ago they were using a Russian built hydrofoil as a passenger ferry. But the Coast Guard doesn't issue many permits for foreign built vessels in coast wise trade.

The big cruise ships get away with it because they are foreign flagged. They have to meet US standards because they are carrying passengers in an out of US ports. And each time they get under way they have to at least go out into international waters. That's why so many cruises to nowhere. For instance I took a gambling cruise out of Fort Lauderdale on a ship flagged in the Ukraine. (the cruise was a disaster but that's another story) As long as they are foreign flagged and meet US standards for passenger ships, they are legal.

This is a subject that is very complex and you almost need an admiralty lawyer to sort it all out.