I bet your mom has a tattoo that says son.....

mach, how long should I expect to wait for initial startup?

mine was 5 month's....and that was just transfer of ownership............so its not fast

wow....... I'm getting it setup on a boat that has never been documented before. I bet mine is gonna be longer

Yes about 5 months is right but just have a copy of the paper work/application on the boat and you can still use it.

I went almost the hole summer with out the final document and didn't have any problems. Was even stopped by the cost gard and was good to go

No it shouldn't take longer as long as you have all the right info and know what you need for the boat. Name of boat and port must be on the back of boat and on the paperwork also when you get your doc number it shold be in the cockpit and visible easily. But some put in in the engine bay.

Mine is on a plate under bench seat

I do have the paperwork that states that I have applied for USCG documentation, etc.

So until things get finalized I wont have any state of MI registration numbers or anything really (not even sure if I should display state registration numbers at all).

I'm sure this means i'll be getting pulled over quite a bit.....

I went the hole first summer like that no stickers no numbers and only got stopped once. Here we don't need Ohio registration numbers at all