Your hailing port is where your vessel claims origin. You can choose your hailing port to be anywhere you would like, provided it is a place in the United States. Specifically, so long as it is in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 55DC, you can select a designated location or place as your hailing port. Coastal, landlocked, you can choose anywhere you would like.
Your hailing port does not have to be the vessel’s physical location nor where it resides the most. In fact, it does not have to be anywhere the vessel is registered, either.
You do not need to designate or mark a hailing port if your vessel is without Coast Guard documentation.
To mark the hailing port on your vessel, use clearly legible letters of the Latin alphabet or Arabic or Roman numerals that are no less than four inches in height. Do so on an exterior part of the stern of your vessel that is clearly visible.
You can change your vessel’s hailing port through our “Change of Vessel Name or Hailing Port” vessel documentation here.
For more about Hailing port designation, here is 67.119:
§ 67.119 Hailing port designation.
- (a) Upon application for any Certificate of Documentation in accordance with subpart K of this part, the owner of a vessel must designate a hailing port to be marked upon the vessel.
- (b) The hailing port must be a place in the United States included in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 55DC.
- (c) The hailing port must include the State, territory, or possession in which it is located.
- (d) The Director, National Vessel Documentation Center has final authority to settle disputes as to the propriety of the hailing port designated.
- (e) Until such time as the vessel owner elects to designate a new hailing port, the provisions of paragraph (c) of this section do not apply to vessels which were issued a Certificate of Documentation before July 1, 1982.
[CGD 89-007, CGD 89-007a, 58 FR 60266, Nov. 15, 1993, as amended by CGD 95-014, 60 FR 31604, June 15, 1995; USCG-1998-4442, 63 FR 52191, Sept. 30, 1998]