Some of us have the privilege of having family and friends that own a yacht or boat. It means spending hours out on the water in the spring and summer (sometimes year round depending on where you reside). Spending time on a boat may have made you want to purchase one yourself and having friends that can guide you through the process can be helpful. They may tell you how the process of registering is a annoyance but is required. You’ll probably learn about what kind of boat to get and which not to as well as how using the Coast Guard documentation search database can be a useful tool. If you are wondering what exactly you can learn from the Coast Guard Documentation database and how it can help you make your boat purchase, read on.
The United States Coast Guard requires that most vessels are registered with them. This means that have a ton of information on boats that have been documented and registered by the federal government. While some recreational vessels don’t have the same registration requirements a lot of owners like to register. Registering can also be a condition of a financial institution’s requirements to finance the purchase of a vessel. The USCG documentation search can be viewed through plenty of different sites and all that you need to look at the information about a boat is the documentation number its registered under or the boat’s name. When looking at the documentation database you can learn about boats you are looking to purchase. On the Coast Guard database, you can find the entire history of a boat that has been registered. This includes information such as the year the boat was built, it’s length, hull number, hailing port and any change in ownership. It also may list the information of the current owner including name and address. Lastly, you can find out whether the boat information is expired or current.
If you have bought a boat recently and have looked up its records on the Coast Guard documentation search you may be interested in transferring documentation or ensure that your boat’s documentation hasn’t expired. If filing all that paperwork seems troublesome, it can be. Finding and filling the right documents could take time and human error could mean that all that your documents are sent back. However, to avoid delays in your filings you could use a third party service like Maritime Documentation Center to help you. We have a dedicated staff that reviews all applications that are submitted. We search through your submissions for any missing information, errors, misspellings and other problems that could halt your processing. From our checkpoint we then pass it onto the Coast Guard for final processing which helps you get your boat out on the water sooner. If you would like to learn more about the process check out our Frequently Asked Questions or call us at 1-800-535-8570 with any questions.