That's right On the Bay. You pay in MD no matter how you slice it. I figured this was going to hurt my resale value, so I decertified the vessel. Saved the $500 documentation fee... which is a total sham!!! by the way...... and Uncle Sam has no dibs. Plus I have the ugly number on the bow now that prevent me from getting harrassed constantly.

BT

I think I will be ok according to Lake Racer. I will go the documentation route with my Havasu house as the registered address. Thanks to everyone for all the good advice.

BT,

Yep, that was my point, just a waste of time & money to get documented in MD plus it would be a lot easier for uncle sam to reach out and touch your boat when it's documented. Not that he could not or would not if you were not documented, but this makes it a lot easier. Hopefully they will have all the documented boats they need befor they get to my non-documented boat.

The Formula is documented and registered in MD. The DOC was required by the lender (even though I paid it off in just a couple months when the old boat sold). The MD DNR sticker fee for a DOC boat is only $10/year, so is pretty minimal (not even on the map compared to filling the gas tanks). Yes, I did pay MD sales tax. I bought the boat in NY and they required a letter that MD tax was paid to release the NY title.

The DOC numbers are inside the engine compartment on the bulkhead. I used vynal numbers, then covered it with a single layer of 2 oz fiberglass cloth. It's transparent, so works fine and protects the numbers.

-Greg

My boat is documented but was never
registered, the proof of ownership is the
M.S.O. I received when I bought it. No tax
only $135 to a Documentation Service for
help

Then again some lenders force us into documentation In this case there is no choice but to do both as in your case Sure seems to be no consistancy from state to state. Guess the lucky ones are the those who can keep from paying the sales tax or personel proerty tax or both.