Boating Activity

Every car on the road today has to be legally registered for you to be able to legally drive it. The government wants to keep track of how many cars, trucks and motorcycle are on its roads and it also wants to ensure that everyone driving has car insurance; this is their way of ensuring that. And just like cars and trucks and motorcycle, boats must go through the registration process as well. In the end, it’s easier to just go through the boating registration process just like it is with cars and trucks; there’s far less hassle in the end.

The DMV places boats into one of two categories: non-powered boats and powered boats. Powered-boats are defined as any boat that has a power source; it can be a large power system or even a small auxiliary source of power, it doesn’t matter, they’re all considered powered boats. Any powered boat that is to be used in “water of the state” must be registered; water of the state is defined as any rivers, lakes or streams, regardless of size, and all of the salt water off the coast until you get 3 miles off. Those types of boats are the types that must go through the boat registration process with the DMV by law; not doing so can result in stiff penalties.

However, although it may seem like it, boat registration is not really all that difficult – or even that expensive, especially when you think of how much it costs to register some vehicles. For powered boats – which is what nearly all boats being registered are – the fee is only $24.00. For non-powered boats, which haven’t been required to be registered since June of 2004, the fee is only $10 and is entirely voluntary. However, always remember that if you choose to remove your boat’s power source, you cannot obtain a refund for your registration fee; and if you add a power source to a boat, you must immediately register the change and pay the DMV’s $24.00 registration fee if you intend to use it.

To complete a boat registration, there are some steps you must go through. First, you need to complete the boat registration application that can be obtained either from the DMV office or printed from most DMV websites. Then, you must make sure you have your boat’s bill or sale or its invoice as well as the registration fee ready. Then, all you do is go down to the office, give them the paperwork and your boat is legally registered.