Coast Guard Documented Vessel: What Buyers Must Check

The listing says “USCG Documented” and you read it as a mark of a serious boat. Then you ask to see the title and the seller tells you there isn’t one — never was. That is not a red flag by itself, but the closing you pictured is the wrong closing: there is no state title to sign over, the lien search you planned to run at your state agency comes back clean even if the boat carries a $90,000 mortgage, and the paperwork goes to a federal office in West Virginia instead of a county counter.

The short answer

A Coast Guard documented vessel is a boat whose ownership is recorded federally instead of titled by a state. The National Vessel Documentation Center (NVDC) issues a Certificate of Documentation naming the owner, and that certificate — not a state title — is the ownership instrument. Under 46 CFR 67.5, any vessel of at least five net tons wholly owned by U.S. citizens is eligible, which in practice means roughly 26 feet and up.

One thing matters more than everything else on this page: the lien record is not where you think it is. A preferred ship’s mortgage on a documented boat is filed with the Coast Guard, not your state, and no state title search will show it. The document that does is an Abstract of Title, form CG-1332, $25 under the fee table at 46 CFR 67.550. Order it before money moves — not after the survey, not at the ramp.

This is not an edge case. Across our active listing set, 1,382 of 5,920 boats with a stated length are 26 feet or longer — about 23% of the market, and the expensive end of it:

Length band	Active listings	Median asking price
Under 26 ft	4,538	$6,500
26–29 ft	467	$17,500
30–39 ft	603	$29,500
40–49 ft	199	$49,700
50 ft and up	113	$125,000

BoatVerdict market data, active listings, August 2026. A missed federal mortgage on a 40-footer is a $50,000 mistake, not a $500 one.

Documentation versus a state title, side by side

The two systems answer the same question — who owns this boat, and who has a claim on it — through completely different offices.

	State title	Coast Guard documentation
Issued by	Your state DMV, DNR or Fish & Wildlife agency	National Vessel Documentation Center (NVDC)
Ownership document	Paper title certificate	Certificate of Documentation
Boat identified by	Hull Identification Number (HIN)	Official number, permanently marked inside the hull
Where liens are recorded	State title record and Secretary of State UCC index	NVDC record: mortgages, bills of sale, notices of lien
How ownership transfers	Seller signs the title over	Recordable bill of sale filed with NVDC, certificate exchanged
Lien document a buyer pulls	Title record and UCC search	Abstract of Title (CG-1332), $25
Markings on the boat	State numbers and decal on the bow	Name and hailing port, minimum 4-inch letters; official number 3 inches inside the hull
Renewal	State registration cycle	1 to 5 years, $26 per year

The markings are how you verify the boat in front of you is the boat in the record. Under 46 CFR 67.121 the official number must be in block numerals at least three inches high on a clearly visible interior structural part of the hull, affixed so removal would obviously scar the surrounding area. Under 46 CFR 67.123 the name and hailing port must be at least four inches high. Go find both. A number that does not match the certificate belongs in the same family as the HIN mismatches in the boat HIN lookup guide.

Why five net tons is roughly 26 feet

Net tons measure volume, not weight. Under the Simplified Regulatory Measurement System at 46 CFR 69.209, a vessel not designed for sailing has a gross register tonnage of 0.67 × L × B × D ÷ 100, with net at 80% of gross. A sailing vessel is 0.50 × L × B × D ÷ 100 gross, net at 90%, and only 75% of the depth counts when it includes the keel. L, B and D are overall length, breadth and hull depth — depth is not draft. For a powerboat, five net tons lands near 935 cubic feet of L × B × D:

Example hull (L × B × D)	L×B×D	Net tons (power)	Documentable?
22 × 8.0 × 3.0	528	2.8	No
26 × 9.0 × 4.0	936	5.0	Right at the line
28 × 9.5 × 4.5	1,197	6.4	Yes

Those are worked examples, not measurements of specific models — the real figure comes from the measurement application filed for that hull. They show why the answer is “roughly 26 feet”: a deep-hulled 25-footer can qualify and a shallow 27-foot flats boat may not. Below five net tons a vessel is excluded from documentation outright (46 CFR 67.9(a)), so a small boat advertised as “documented” deserves a question.

What changes in the sale

Three things change, and each has cost buyers money.

There is nothing to sign on the back of. Transfer is evidenced by a bill of sale meeting the federal filing requirements — form CG-1340 or CG-1356 — plus a citizenship declaration from the new owner (46 CFR 67.75). Recording it costs $8 per page. On a documented boat the bill of sale is not a supporting document, it is the document; the mechanics are in the boat bill of sale guide.

The seller’s certificate dies the moment you buy. Under 46 CFR 67.167(b)(1) a Certificate of Documentation becomes invalid immediately when ownership changes in whole or in part — the same section kills it on a name or hailing port change. You apply for an exchange, $84 for a recreational vessel, and until it clears the person in command is supposed to have a valid original certificate aboard (46 CFR 67.313). Do not book a delivery run assuming the paper lands on time.

A recorded mortgage can block the exchange. With an outstanding mortgage on record, the certificate cannot be exchanged for a change of ownership without the mortgagee’s consent (46 CFR 67.145), which carries its own $24 fee. The lender has a veto over your closing until it is paid off and the satisfaction is recorded. Learn that from the abstract, not from a stalled application three weeks after you wired the money.

The lien search you must run — and its blind spot

Order the Abstract of Title (CG-1332, $25) — anyone may request one (46 CFR 67.301). It lists the recorded chain: every bill of sale, every mortgage, every notice of claim of lien against that hull, and whether each was satisfied. A clean abstract naming your seller as current owner, with any prior mortgage showing a recorded satisfaction, is the result you want. On a messy chain, a Certificate of Ownership (CG-1330, $125) gives the Coast Guard’s formal statement of ownership and encumbrances.

Know what a preferred mortgage is before you read it. Under 46 U.S.C. 31322 a mortgage attains preferred status when it covers the whole vessel, is filed in substantial compliance with 46 U.S.C. 31321, and covers a documented vessel. Under 46 U.S.C. 31325 the holder can enforce it in a civil action in rem — against the boat itself — in federal district court. You are the one standing on the deck when the marshal arrives. Paying the seller does not extinguish a lien; only the lienholder’s recorded release does. Same principle as the boat lien check guide, moved to a federal record.

Then the blind spot. Under 46 U.S.C. 31342, anyone providing necessaries on the owner’s order — yard work, dockage, fuel, repairs, hauling — has a maritime lien on the vessel and need not prove credit was given to the vessel. No filing is required for that lien to exist. Recording a notice under 46 U.S.C. 31343 is optional, and that section states it “does not alter in any respect the law pertaining to the establishment of a maritime lien”; a recorded notice expires three years after the lien arose unless discharged sooner.

So the abstract can come back spotless while an unpaid boatyard still holds a claim on the hull. Only a court sale under 46 U.S.C. 31326 terminates claims and delivers a vessel “free of all those claims.” A private sale does not. Your protection is procedural:

• Order the abstract yourself — not a seller-supplied copy, because the date matters.
• Get a sworn no-lien affidavit naming every yard, marina and mechanic that has touched the boat in three years, with contact details — then call the yard and the marina and ask if the account is current. Those two calls catch what the abstract cannot show.
• Close through escrow whenever a mortgage appears, with funds held until the satisfaction and the new bill of sale are recorded.
• Check the state side too. If the boat was state-titled before documentation, an old state lien can still sit in that record — see boat title problems.

What documentation costs to keep

These are the statutory fees at 46 CFR 67.550 (recreational applications), last amended November 14, 2023. Anything quoted materially above them is a private filing service’s markup, not a government fee.

Service	Fee
Initial Certificate of Documentation (1 year)	$133
Exchange of certificate — e.g. after your purchase	$84
Renewal, 1 year	$26
Renewal, 5 years	$130
Replacement of lost or mutilated certificate	$50
Approval of exchange requiring mortgagee consent	$24
Abstract of Title (CG-1332)	$25
Certificate of Ownership (CG-1330)	$125
Filing a bill of sale	$8 per page
Evidence of deletion from documentation	$15

Recreational endorsements run 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 years (46 CFR 67.163); a certificate carrying both a recreational and a commercial endorsement is valid one year only. Buy the five-year renewal — failure to renew is grounds for deletion from the roll of actively documented vessels under 46 CFR 67.171(a)(10). NVDC posts the date of the applications it is currently processing; check that page the day you go under contract and build your timeline around it, not around what a broker assumes.

Documentation does not replace your state — or your tax bill

Once a vessel is documented its state certificate of number becomes invalid (33 CFR 173.77(b)(1)) and the owner must remove the state numbers and sticker from the hull (33 CFR 173.33(a)). Buyers wrongly read that as the state being out of the picture.

It is not. Many states still require a documented boat to be registered and to display a decal, and every state still wants its sales or use tax. Florida is the clearest case: the title application requires the applicant to state the vessel is not documented (Fla. Stat. § 328.01), so a documented boat gets no Florida title — yet § 328.48 still provides for a decal issued to a documented vessel, placed on the port side. Documented federally, registered by the state, titled by neither. Confirm your own state’s rule with the agency in writing before closing; the tax mechanics are in the boat title transfer guide. Documentation does not make a boat tax-free.

Should you keep it documented?

Keep it if you cruise into foreign waters, finance through a marine lender that requires a preferred mortgage, or want the federal chain of title. It costs $26 a year. Delete it if the boat stays on one lake and you would rather hand a future buyer a plain state title: apply under 46 CFR 67.171, request evidence of deletion ($15), and take that letter plus your chain of bills of sale to the state. Start early — most state offices will not title the boat until they see it. And never buy a documented boat planning to strip documentation to escape a lien. Deletion discharges nothing; it moves the problem to a different filing cabinet.

What to do next

1. Match the official number on the certificate to the one marked inside the hull yourself (46 CFR 67.121). No match, no deal.
2. Order the Abstract of Title (CG-1332) for $25 in your name, before any deposit. Read it for open mortgages and unsatisfied notices of claim of lien.
3. Call the yard and the marina and get a sworn no-lien affidavit — that covers the unrecorded maritime liens the abstract never shows.
4. If a mortgage is open, close through escrow. Payoff goes to the lender, the satisfaction gets recorded, then the balance goes to the seller. Budget the $24 consent fee and the delay.
5. Have the exchange paperwork ready on closing day — bill of sale (CG-1340 or CG-1356), citizenship declaration, $84 fee — because the seller’s certificate is void the second you own the boat.
6. Survey it like any other boat. Federal paperwork says nothing about wet core or tired engines. At $18 to $30 per foot a survey on a 34-footer runs $650 to $1,000 — see boat survey cost.

Documentation is a records system, not a seal of quality. It changes where you look for the lien, not whether one exists. Run the abstract, make the calls, then judge the boat on the boat. Paste the listing and get an instant verdict — Buy Score, red flags, and fair-price context before you call the seller.