Did you recently lose your Certificate of Documentation and aren’t sure what to do? Did you suffer a lost boaters license and are researching the best course of action? At the National Documentation Portal, we help vessel owners with vessel documentation. Vessels that have been documented with the USCG are our forte. That said, there are some steps to take we can provide for those who have lost their boat license as well.
Best Practices for Lost Documentation
If you have lost your Certificate of Documentation, get a Replacement Certificate as quickly as possible. You can do so through our site. Remember: you need a real, genuine Certificate of Documentation to be able to legally use your documented vessel. Simply having a copy of a picture you took on your phone, in the cloud, and so forth, isn’t enough. To expedite the process, you can apply for rush processing/priority requests when you get the Replacement Certificate through our site.
Best Practices for Lost Boaters License
The procedure to replace your boaters license is different in most states. The best, first course of action is to determine exactly which governmental body handles boating licenses in your state. For some states, it might be the DMV, it could be the Fish Commission, it could be something else. If you’re unsure, look at the forms you may have from when you applied/received your license on land or search online. Your governmental agency should be able to guide you through a replacement process. Remember: you can’t apply for a new license through the National Documentation Portal, as our site only deals with federal USCG documentation.
To Protect Against Losing Your Vessel Documentation
In addition to not being able to operate a documented vessel without a Certificate of Documentation, you cannot operate a documented vessel with a Certificate of Documentation that has been mutilated. To protect against this (and to ensure that you’ll be able to use your vessel how you want and when you want) we recommend acquiring a Certified Copy of a Certificate of Documentation. You can do this through our site as well. That way, in the event that your Certificate of Documentation becomes lost, mutilated, or similar, you’ll still be able to legally use your vessel in your preferred way.
Help With All Aspects of Boat Documentation
Replacement certificates and certified copies are just some of the vessel documentation services that we offer at our site. Indeed, you’ll be able to find the forms here to help you to learn more about a vessel before purchase (such as the Abstract of Title, through conducting a vessel documentation search, and more) as well as those for when you acquire a vessel (initial vessel documentation, renewal, applying for a Preferred Ship’s Mortgage, and others) and so forth. In fact, even when you’re to sell your documented vessel, we have the forms for that as well, such as the Deletion of Certificate and the Transfer/Exchange form. To see all of the ways that we can help, please click on our site.