Alongside making sure that you maintain your vessel in a physical sense, something that all boat owners need to make sure they keep up to date with is making and keeping a solid history trail. Every repair, service, or upgrade/refurbishment/replacement should be recorded.
Having a detailed and trustworthy boat history report to be able to refer to both for yourself and for any individuals or parties that might have questions about the vessel’s past is an invaluable and, to be honest, legally essential element of wider boat ownership, and something that you can’t afford to get lax with as time goes by. It is certainly something a potential buyer will have a major interest in.
With this in mind, here are some of the best benefits and ways to procure a trustworthy boat history report when you need one.
Vessel Documentation Search
The best place to start to build up a good boat history report is by performing a simple vessel documentation search online. Using the vessel’s official hull identification number, you can find out a lot of important information including particulars like dimensions, when the Certificate of Documentation was issued, when it is due to expire, and much more. A simple vessel documentation search should be the first port of call when trying to put together a full boat history, but as we are about to detail, there is so much more than you can do in order to gain as much information as you can to ensure that your boat history is as extensive as it can possibly be.
Abstract Of Title
In order to find information about the vessel’s owner and its chain of ownership, you need to apply for an Abstract of Title. This included the ownership information that can’t be found through the vessel documentation search, as well as whether or not there are any outstanding mortgages and/or liens on the vessel in question.
Protecting Your Investment
Through conducting all of the relevant research that we have specified above, what you can start to do is form a solid history and idea of how much (if any at all) damage the vessel has sustained in the past. You will need to include information in your report about any serious accidents that have occurred over the course of the boat’s lifetime. Look for any marked inconsistencies in the boat’s existing history as it could be a clue that previous owners have tried to cover undesirable incidents up. Don’t just focus on surface-level appearance either; take a deep dive and perform a thorough inspection of the boat’s structure and mechanics.
Should you ever find yourself in need of assistance with the various levels of vessel documentation that are required in the modern boat-owning landscape, you can make the entire process much easier by going through the Vessel Registrar Center where you can get a boat history report. Feel free to get in contact with a member of our experienced team and they will be more than happy to answer any specific documentation-related questions that you might have. We look forward to hearing from you.