registering a home built boat

[eastern270]

quick question. how do you go about titling and registering a home built boat in the state of massachusetts?

[Steve Lansdowne]

Talk to whatever state agency titles purchased boats. In Texas you must prove you built the boat (showing them lists of materials you bought, for example) and then show them the boat. They give you a hull identification number that you affix to the transom and register it just as if you had purchased it.

[capt jake]

In our state, you better save your receipts!! They assess a value anthen deduct the taxes that you spent on supplies from the value!

In other words, they rape you! (sorry). Save as many receipts as possible!!!

[Paul Scheuer]

It is different in every state. Illinois has a website for state statutes that should give the requirements. I've only visited it for trailer regulation, but the information is probably there, burried in the legaleze. Seems like we've had this thread within the last year. Maybe the Mass process was discussed. Happy bureaucratting.

[wolfietuk]

The coast gaurd has a process for getting official hull ID numbers. This is helpful if the boat is moved out of state. There is a page about it on the boatbuilding ring.

Rick

[T.KAMILA]

Eastern,

The first thing you need is a hull number. To get that you have to go to see these guys on Tuesday at four in the afternoon for a boat inspection after which they will issue you a hull number. You don’t need an
appointment just show up. The guy is there for about a half-hour ,if no one shows up he leaves. (Call to confirm the day and time as I did it in late August they could have a fall schedule that is different.)

Their address is:

Contact: Major Roger Arduini, Inland Enforcement Bureau Chief
Email Address: roger.arduini@state.ma.us
Inland Enforcement Bureau
183 Milk Street
Westboro, MA 01581
Phone: (508) 366-6537 or (508) 366-6420 Fax: (508) 792-7437

Then you go to here:

Massachusetts Environmental Police
Registration and Titling Bureau
218 South Main Street
Fall River, MA 02721
(508) 679-8287

or here:

Massachusetts Environmental Police
Registration and Titling Bureau
40 Southbridge Street-- 3rd Floor
Worcester, MA 01608
(508) 753-0603

Bring all your receipts from building the boat. They want you to pay tax on anything out of state or a receipt that does not show taxes being paid.

Most of this information can be found at:

http://www.state.ma.us/dfwele/dle/dle_toc.htm

When I finally got my regestration number I was surprised to find it was a combination of my birth date and my last two initials

MS 0628 TK

Tom

[ 10-14-2002, 02:37 PM: Message edited by: T.KAMILA ]

[NormMessinger]

Incorporate in Deleware. Register your boat in Nebraska.

County Treasurer here ruled that since Prairie Islander was home built they assumed all taxes had been paid. I didn't argue much.

--Norm

[Mark Van]

In Missouri, I had to have someone from the water patrol come out and see the boat, and fill out a form. Then I applied for a hull idendification number, I think it cost $10.00 or something, then I had it registered. $30.00 for 3 years for a 39 foot boat.
I guess I was lucky to be in Missouri.

[Ross Faneuf]

I documented my home-built in Maine. I started by going to the town clerk and paying my excise tax; they're knowledgable, and I simply told them what Ceol Mor was, they wrote it up, and that cleared me with the state (relatively cheap - not much over $100). I then carefully read the CG web site on documenting a vessel. I filled out the builder's form, and the application for documentation, and paid the fee. I never got an official hull number - that may be a Massachusetts thing, or maybe I just got lucky. The official documentation arrived in the mail within 2 weeks. It was remarkably easy. The fact I was both builder and owner meant the title stuff was no problem.

I eventually got hit up by the state of Maine to show whether I had paid Maine sales tax. Although I had largely built the boat in NH, and avoided paying tax on a lot of materials, I had bought a lot of expensive stuff in Maine (sails, standing rigging, all electrical stuff, etc). And that seemed to satisfy them.

The documentation services would like you to think that getting documented as arcane and difficult, and so justifies their fees. That may be true in some cases, but my experience suggests it's emphatically not true of a home builder.

And you get the pleasure of carving the official documentation number into the 'main beam', per CG regs.

[ 10-15-2002, 10:24 AM: Message edited by: Ross Faneuf ]