Document it!

“Make sure you document that.” We’ve all heard it before. Someone tells you something that doesn’t sound quite right. You’d better document that! You’re boss tells you to do something that might come back to bite you. You’d better document that! You’re promised a bonus. You’d better document that!

I have been asked why I’m writing this blog. Rather than put anyone on the spot, I’ll relate the conversation I had with myself about this question. “Why am I writing this blog?” “Well, I want to document it.” “What does documenting it have to do with writing this blog?” “Good question. It actually has nothing to do with it except that it provides some material.” “What do you mean? Doesn’t writing this blog document that the work you’re doing on the boat?” “Of course it does. But that has nothing to do with documenting it.”

Maybe you’ve never had a conversation with yourself like that. Perhaps this gives you a little insight into the kinds of things I have to deal with on a daily basis. The nice thing about a conversation like this is that you always win the debate. The not so nice thing is that you also always loose. I know what you’re thinking. “He’s rambling again. Why am I reading this?” Well, the answer is that this blog provides, hopefully, a little entertainment, and tucked deep within these ramblings are some truly educational and helpful morsels.

So, back to documenting. Yes, this blog does document the progress on Condor. And this particular entry is aimed at shedding some light on documenting. Not documenting the process, but rather the process of documenting.

Condor has always been a documented vessel. And that can be documented. Have a look for yourself. http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st1/CoastGuard/VesselByName.html This wonderful site allows one to search a database of United States Coast Guard (USCG) documented vessels by name. Go ahead, try it! What did you find? If you searched for Condor, it should have returned about 38 results. One of those results should have been our Condor.

So, when we bought Condor, she was documented, as was the sale of Condor. But that a different kind of documentation. The documentation of the sale includes a signed and notarized bill of sale as well as the documentation of the signing of the documentation. Condor had been documented to the original owner from the time he bought her from the Sabre dealer and when he sold her to us, he signed that documentation over to us. It’s really not as confusing as it sounds.

Instead of the boat being titled by the state, Condor was registered with the Coast Guard and issued a Certificate of Documentation. Why would one do this? There are a few advantages to documenting rather than titling with a state. If the vessel will be going into foreign ports, it makes clearing customs a little easier. Also, if the boat will be moving from state to state, it should make things a little easier. Keep in mind though, that if you set up in a particular state and plan to stay there a while, you’ll probably still have to register the boat with that state. Condor, for example, will be registered in Maryland even though she is documented.

So how does one transfer a documented vessel from one person to another? That’s a good question. I’m glad you asked. If you’re financing the purchase though a bank or lending institution, you can pay them an exorbitant fee to do this for you. When we purchased Pony Express so many years ago, the bank wanted $500 to do this. As I mentioned in a previous rambling, I mean post, I am cheap. I’m not going pay someone $500 to do something that I can do for a whole lot less.

Another option is to pay an independent service to do it for you. A quick internet search found a couple options. One service will give me the forms I need for a mere $29.95. Where do they get the forms? The USCG, of course! And how much does the USCG charge for those forms? They’re free! That makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? Pay someone $30 to send me a form that I can download at no cost? The sad thing is that there are probably people doing this.

This same firm will complete the paperwork for me for $150. All I have to do is enter all my information into their form. They will then complete the necessary USCG forms and send them to . . . me? Why wouldn’t they file them for me? Oh, they will, but not for $150. For $150, they just send them back to me and I have to send them to the USCG with my check. Wait! More money? What did I pay for? I gave them the info and all they did was type it into a form they downloaded for free? I could have done that at no cost!

Okay, so what’s going on? Some people want to make this vessel transfer into a big scary process that can’t be completed by the average person. News flash! The USCG has made it even easier. Okay, here it is. To transfer the ownership of a documented vessel, have the previous owner sign the back of the certificate of documentation over to you. Have it notarized. Get a notarized bill of sale. Complete form CG-1258 (exchange or replacement of certificate of documentation form – and instructions are on-line). Send in $84 for the exchange fee and $8 for the transfer fee and in a couple of weeks, the Coast Guard will send you your new certificate of documentation. That’s a total of $92 for all the math challenged readers. If you really want to spend an extra $150, feel free to mail it to me. I accept cash or check.

So, this is what we did for Condor. We didn’t pay someone $29.95 to download the form for us. We didn’t pay them $150 to fill in our information. We didn’t pay a bank over $500 to do it for us. Instead, we just used our common sense and did it ourselves. Remember, as you read elsewhere in this blog, cheap is beautiful.

And thus, Condor is documented. Documented that she belongs to us. And this blog has documented that she has been documented.