Trojan Boat Forum

Ive had mostly registered boats over the years, a couple documented boats, and removed from documentation boats, whats the benefits, is their any? users Prowlersfish and Captainmanic were recently researching a boat I shared on here with a website, is documentation just sharing with strangers and your particulars? Maybe its a benefit in other areas of the country but I cant see any in RI

Only benefit that I know of in Maryland is that you don't have to wax around your registration numbers, since there aren't any. If you pay the documentation fee, you still get to show your patriotism by paying state tax. I think that is not the case in all states, but Maryland is pretty good at the tax-and-spend routine.

Our governor raised the state income tax recently. When doing so, he pointed out that state taxes are deductible from federal income tax, so our tax rates weren't really going up (it's just that the federal government would now have less money all things being equal). A swell fella' he is.

You still have to wax around the name on the bow ( You don't have to have a name on the bow unless your comracally documented . )
The main benefits are : you pay once to register and thats it . It is easier to make sure the boat is free of leans or what liens there are . Many banks will only loan money on a documented boat . May add value as you have a full history and boat can be used in trade .

And if you travel to foreign ports it almost a must . As you become a US flagged vessel

And you can fly a yacht ensign


And its cool

But to most of us much of that makes no difference .

In Iowa we pay less for the registration if the boat is documented. Quite a bit less, probably won't be that way forever though.

In Illinois it doesn't save you anything on the yearly registration fees with the Department of Natural Resources but like someone earlier mentioned a lot of banks require you to document. after the initial fee which is mostly profit for the lender the annual documentation renewals are free as long as you don't miss one. I think it is $5.00 thankfully my 10 meter was bought cash in hand so I don't have to worry about it.

one advantage I did discover was this. a few years ago while out on lake Michigan on my previous Trojan a helicopter kept circling the boat and it looked like they were taking pictures. At the time it thought it was odd but a month later I received a solicitation from Boat Pix.com asking if I wanted to buy pictures of my boat on Lake Michigan on a specified date. I got the pictures and they were great Expensive but great. Turns out they found me through the national vessel documentation service

You can get the same type of info from many states too ( not by name but by # )

We don't have sales or property taxes on boats in RI and no loans so...on 30ft plus we have the option to register for onw or two years but theirs no discount to pay two years or if it was documented so I guess its of no benefit to me personally, thanks, always wondered

K4282 wrote:We don't have sales or property taxes on boats in RI and no loans so...on 30ft plus we have the option to register for onw or two years but theirs no discount to pay two years or if it was documented so I guess its of no benefit to me personally, thanks, always wondered

Is RI one of the states where you have to register it even if its documented ? Glad there is no sales or propertly taxes there .In CT next door to you they hit you hard on sales tax. In Va the boat taxes are up to the City/town your in . One reason I keep my boat where its at ....No Tax

In the early days, a "Federally Documented Vessel" could also be called into service, if requested by the government, in time of war...

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prowlersfish wrote:Is RI one of the states where you have to register it even if its documented ? Glad there is no sales or propertly taxes there .In CT next door to you they hit you hard on sales tax. In Va the boat taxes are up to the City/town your in . One reason I keep my boat where its at ....No Tax

Yes we have to register if documented or not, but. Ive had boats registered in Mass before and I dont recall if i paid sales tax but do remember paying exile aka property taxes on them. We dont tax boats here in RI do a desire to keep builders located mainly in Bristol RI from what im told, and I work in politics so I believe thats why. We have Outerlimits (amazing beautiful) Blue Fin a few sailboats and others

Stripermann2 wrote:In the early days, a "Federally Documented Vessel" could also be called into service, if requested by the government, in time of war...

I heard that, a reason id be leary of documentation mine

The main benefits are : you pay once to register and thats it.


You have to renew your certificate every year for which there is no fee. I heard some rumblings that the USCG wants to start charging a fee for the yearly renewals.

In Illinois we are also supposed to register with the State but we don't get a State number. I have failed to register in IL and if I get pulled over, I will play dumb and say its a USCG documented vessel and that I didn't know I had to register with the State

In NY you have to pay a three year registration to the state even if you are documented, but you don't have to show your numbers. You DO have to show the NYS regristration sticker(s) on both sides of the bow though. Plus, where I am, you have to show a LGPC decal in the current year, and for a 32 footer its $247.50 a year for that decal. Add 100 bux if you have a 36 footer, and forget it if you have a 40 footer, thats 450 bux a year. Nothing gets you out from under the LGPC decal. Its a local thing.

Sounds like a good reason to move .

prowlersfish wrote:Sounds like a good reason to move .

Funny you should mention it, because its in the cards. Not because of the stupid fee though, just another oppertunity has come along. The biggest issue with relocation is how to move the Trojan. I could pay A LOT of decal fees for what its gonna cost me to move the boat 5500 miles, but the other side of that is that I could live on it for awhile during home construction. Having it documented would likely be a plus in the proposed new home waters. Halibut anyone????

What in the world is LGPC? Glad we don't have that fee either!