If you’re selling a boat, the vessel bill of sale is the most important document you need. The sales process itself is not difficult, but there are several details you need to be very specific about. Keep in mind that this is an official exchange and having the document properly filled in can protect you from any potential legal problems.
What You Need to Write in the Vessel Bill of Sale
The information you are obliged to include in the boat bill of sale is:
Buyer’s name, ID, and contact details
Seller’s name, ID, and contact details
Vessel’s information
VIN number
Make
Model
Year
Registration number
The embarkation’s price
Conditions of the sale (this includes warranties or “as is” status).
Just for you to have as a reference, we recommend that you download a bill of sale template and take a close look at how it’s filled. Vessel bills of sale vary depending on each State, so it’s recommended that you download a document that is compatible with your State’s law. The same applies at the moment of filling up the form yourself.
Like any other legal document, the bill of sale needs to have your signature to be official. If you’re doing the process online, you can use an online signature. Both seller and buyer need to sign.
How Can I Safely Process My Boat’s Bill of Sale?
Once the form is complete and signed, the next step is to submit it to the USCG. To do that you can visit our document upload page, select the file to attach, and send. As you can see, the process is very simple. And be peace-minded that you’re doing it through a safe, authorized website.
The Maritime Documentation Center is a third-party private agency that handles USCG Documentation processing to NVDC. We are NOT the U.S. Coast Guard or the National Vessel Documentation Center, but we can process and send the forms to them for you. Our website is SSL encrypted to safely handle your documentation and it’s all set for you to send the information in three steps (or even less!)
As you can see on our home page, we keep a case processing report that is updated weekly. You can practically process any boat documentation on our website with equal ease. We also feature a very complete FAQ section and hundreds of blog articles with useful information. If you have any particular queries, feel free to contact us at (800) 535-8570.