The NVDC requires all vessel owners, whether they’re commercial or recreational, to obtain vessel documentation and keep it up-to-date. The entity hasn’t had any trouble processing commercial vessel documents in time. However, since late last year, the entity had experienced an unprecedented backlog with recreational vessels documentation.
This makes sense if we think that 70% of the certificates of documentation that the NVDC handles are for recreational boats. The NVDC blames the delays on problems in the Coast Guard’s information technology system performance. These problems impacted document management in particular.
This situation is not new for the NVDC. Between 2018 and 2019, the company suffered several gaps in its data in regard to recreational vessel documentation processing. The main reason for this is that the NVDC doesn’t use formal targets to measure staff timeliness at the moment of processing documentation and overall performance.
One way to avoid delays for boat owners is to process documentation through third-party agencies like the Maritime Documentation Center. Such entities work as a nexus between vessel owners and the NVDC and USCG, making a virtuous circle in which all parties win.
Our Relationship with the NVDC
The Maritime Documentation Center has no direct relationship with the NVDC or the U.S. Coast Guard. We’re a third-party private agency handling and processing documentation for them. Our mission is to make interacting with the NVDC database easier, faster, and more convenient for vessel owners like you.
We’ve created a portal that can make it simple and fast to send and process documentation to the Coast Guard. Our website is SSL encrypted, so you can be peace-minded that all the information you share is secured. The system is also as easy as a three-step process. You can find the most used applications right away on our home page:
- Boat Registration Renewal
- Reinstatement
- Transfer/Exchange of USCG Documentation
- Initial Vessel Documentation
- Deletion From USCG Documentation
- Abstract of Title
- Certified Copy of Vessel Documentation
- Change of Address
Aside from these popular applications, we can handle practically every vessel documentation to be presented to the NVDC and the USCG. Aside from those online forms, we also put at your disposal a very complete FAQs section, where you can find a lot of answers to your questions. We’re also a resource, a large provider of relevant, original articles to all things vessel documentation, with hundreds of useful blogs.
If you’re still in doubt about any specific topic, please contact us at (800) 535-8570.