It is a common practice that, before getting yourself involved in a boat transaction, try to gather all of the relevant information from the vessel you are about to purchase. Looking for the intended boat online at the United States Coast Guard website has to be one of the first and most important steps you need to take if you are seriously considering buying a boat. If you tried to do so, you may have noticed that is not as simple as writing the owner of the vessel in a documentation search. Let us show you what you need to know to conduct the query and what information will come up on the search.
Information you Need for your Query
There is no need to talk about the many benefits of having a boat, and the importance vessels have for those lucky enough to possess one. Due to this fact, having a tool that allows boat owners to perform vessel documentation searches will help those who are interested in getting it, to gain access to comprehensive information that the US Coast Guard has on vessels that were registered with the governmental administration at some point. This information sometimes needs to be interpreted, so it might be a good idea to have someone who knows what the details mean next to the document.
In fact, this is one of the reasons that inspired us to create our own search tool system and give you access to the USCG registry. Once you know the official and the Hull identification number (HIN) of the vessel you intend to buy, it is only a matter of filling out the blanks.
The HIN consists of 12 digits, compounded by both letters and numbers.
The first three digits are the letters the US Coast Guard manufacturer assigned to your vessel.
The following 5 digits are serial numbers, and they can be a combination of both letters and numbers. Not to be confused, the letters I, O, and Q can not be used.
The following digit is a letter that goes from A to L, with A representing January and L December. It indicates the month in which the construction began.
The following 3 numbers are for the last digit of the year in which the boat was built, and for the boat’s model year.
Information you Will be Getting from your Search
Once you have submitted the information and pressed the vessel documentation search now button, the data that comes from our system can include ownership information, preferred mortgage fillings, lien claim notices, and many different types of supplemental data.
Keep in mind that the information that will come up on the query will only extend to the vessel’s federal status. This means that the details that you get can be affected by state-level recordings or even foreign registries. In addition to that, the document you get can not be taken as conclusive evidence of ownership. You will still need the vessel’s bill of sale, certificate of documentation, or state title.
All the Forms you Need in One Place
Now that you know what information to gather and the details you will later be able to find, it is only a matter of pressing “search now” and your vessel documentation search will be ready in a few minutes. Remember that our representatives can help you interpret the results. Even more, the Maritime Documentation Center can help you get many different types of boating applications. Just fill out the form you need and our experienced staff will shortly get back to you.