They have dealer plates for car dealers , how do you get something like that for boats ? How do you drive someones boat to demo it to a customer that may not be insured or even registered ? DO they have some kind of dealer plate for boats ? What about insurance ? Do they offer a planket policy for boats ?

I sell a lot of trucks and now I am doing quite a few boats and I need to do it right . Can anyone help point me in the right direction ? Thanks , JOE

contact your dept of nat resourses... they will give you the info just got my info and am researching everything else involved...

Each State has boat dealer licenses similiar to car dealers. To be insured for demo rides, you need to purchase boat dealer insurance with Protection and Indemnity coverage to cover liability issues that may arise. Boat dealer insurance is not cheap, so it is not for the guy who sells two or three boats a year as a hobby.

Contact the Department of Boating and Waterways about the plates. As for insurance. I get an Authorization for sea trail sighned buy the owner and a copy of there policy. If they do not have there own insurance I will not Sea Trial or transport the boat. Law suit waiting to happen. Good Luck!

Some how this post got lost for a while . Now I found it . Thanks for the help . Any more input would be great ! Thank you ,JOE

Basicly what I am trying to do is , say I buy 10 boats to resell , I don't want to get an insurance policy on every one but I need to be covered to drive and show them . Anymore help would be great ! Thanks !

We have dealer number plates that must be affixed to the boat while we are sea trialing them. They are also required if you are a mechanic testing the boat.
We have special insurance for sea trials that only covers if we are testing, and if we have a client on board for a sea trial, it is required that we have a signed purchase agreement, and a deposit, for the vessel.

We have pretty much the same as rocknrace. Some states have to post a bond. Insurance is the killer. It's bad expensive! Even with waivers, dummy corporations etc. we still need it. The dept. of revenue always want's their cut too. You probably have some of these covered under your auto dealership. MB

They are actually easy to get in fla. We had to show an Occupational lic., and our sales tax resale id. We have dealer placks for the boats(you can get the blanks at west marine) and dealer tags for the trailers.

OK, say I want to just take one out for the fun of it ( off the record ) !

You know , like when someone trades in a street rod and you throw the dealer tag on it and go away for the weekend !!