: Hey Mike
: I've got 3 boats that I'll need to register this spring, in Ohio.
: From what I'm reading the process doesn't sound that difficult.
: Check this page:
:
: http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/watercraft/questions/tabid/2688/Default.aspx
: Or maybe there's something else involved they're not telling? This
: doesn't sound so bad. No mention of cost, though.
: I'm still building so I haven't called them yet. Any thoughts?
: Tim

Hi Tim-

It depends on the watercraft office you will be going to. You need to take the boat to an office to have the boat physically inspected, then by the rules, you have to take the boat home and permanently affix the HIN they give you, then take them back to be inspected again to see that you have installed them, then you can apply for the registration.

There are also required places where need to affix the aluminum tag (they're about 1/2" x 3") depending on what type of boat you have. If you don't want to put it on the port stern outer hull, you have to talk to the registration office where you plan to take it to see if it will be o.k. I am reasonably close (about an hour's drive) to two offices. One will not discuss any part of the process- even how to obtain a HIN- unless you show up with a boat to be inspected. (I registered a commercial kayak there which I bought used, but since I bought it in Ohio and it was used in Ohio, but had never previously been registered, they wouldn't give me a sticker until we called their supervisor and took a long time at it.) The other office has people who are more familiar with boats, who are genuinely happy to see what you built, and seem to actually like their jobs. They let me take my kayak there, gave me the HINs and let me register the boats all on the same trip. They also will let slide the placement of one of the two HIN tabs and allow them to be placed inside the cockpit on the port side, so that you can see it when you pop your skirt. The guy told me that that's where sailboats have to put it: Sailboats have a coaming, kayaks have a coaming... it doesn't make all that much difference as long as you have the number.

From there you can fudge where you put the sticker. I don't know where you live, but here people do get stopped, and people do get tickets. They're expensive. A friend of mine in a SOF got a ticket last spring for not having a tag and not having a "signaling device" (whistle) and it was $110.

m