Is buying a commercial boat or large recreational vessel like a yacht in your immediate future? If it is, you want to make sure that any boat you consider for purchase is not only physically sound but has all its paperwork in order. Making sure the boat has a good engine, is structurally sound, and has the features you want at the price you want is vital, but making sure the documentation is in order and checking the history of the vessel can give you valuable insight as well. You may not know it, by the U.S. Coast Guard is in charge of keeping track of all the documented vessels in the United States. Knowing where you can go to find a current list of documented vessels database can make it easier for you to find necessary information about a ship you are considering buying.
Keeping a Current List of Vessels
While the Coast Guard oversees maintaining a list, the list is not updated each day as ships are added to it. With the thousands of applications processed all the time by the Documentation Center, it would be too difficult for the Coast Guard to accomplish a feat like daily publishing. Instead, the list is updated quarterly to include the new information that is amassed over three months. You will want to keep this in mind as you search the list because you may not get accurate updates if the boat has recently changed information.
Locating the List Itself
Locating a list of documented vessels can be tricky. Luckily, several websites out there today provide the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) list of documented vessels for you to search, including ours here at the Maritime Documentation Center. You can put in the information you have about a ship, like its documentation number or the vessel name, and you will get a list of results in seconds that you can look through and examine.
Access the Current List with Ease
If you want to search the list of documented vessels to find information about a vessel you wish to buy, come to us at the Maritime Documentation Center. We have a link on our home page for vessel search so that you can click, enter the ship name or documentation number, and you instantly get results. Once you make your purchase, remember to come back to us to help you with all your documentation needs so that you can get the certificate that you need for your ship. We offer all the forms you need electronically for easy and secure filing with us, and our staff will assist you by looking at your applications before sending them on to the Coast Guard for processing and approval, allowing you to get documentation.