How to Register a Boat

"Hi. I'm Albert Hedgepeth with Expert Village. Today we are going to talk a little bit about boat maintenance. The Coast Guard, The Fish and Wildlife and The Park Service may pull you at any point while out on the water to check to see if you have the appropriate safety equipment and to verify that you have the appropriate registration for your boat. Maintaining and appropriate registration is a necessity while out and doing water activities. Your registration has information on it such as the vessel number, the make and model of the boat, the year of the boat, the length, and the manufacturer's id number. A new registration can be bought and purchased or replacements can be purchased at your local wildlife resource commission, usually for around fifteen to seventeen dollars. When you get your registration in the mail you will notice that there is actually a picture that displays where the decal should be placed on your boat for your current registration. What you want to do is you want to use the diagram and go ahead and get that marking on your boat. That is one of the first things that the Coast Guard, Fish and Wildlife and that park rangers are going to be looking for; that decal on the bow of the boat. If you go ahead and get your decal on and you have the registration on board usually you don't run into many problems, other than dealing with major safety violations and not having the appropriate equipment. It's always a good idea to take your registration, store it in a zip lock bag just in case people that are wet on the boat or walking around in the cabin; just to make sure that they don't spill anything on it."