Our offer has been accepted to purchase a St Francis 50 catamaran. The boat is currently sitting in a marina in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We want to move it to Palmetto, Florida for some refits. We are now in the process of transferring boat ownership and funds to close the sale.
Buying a boat in Florida is starting to feel a bit like our destination wedding in Victoria, Canada. It seemed so easy in the planning.
The distance from our home in Ottawa adds complexity not to mention expense.
Why We Hired a Marine Documentation Specialist
To close the sale we have hired a marine documentation specialist. If we were buying a house, we would call this person a “lawyer” because they perform a similar function.
What a Marine Documentation Specialist Does
A marine documentation specialist prepares the required paperwork and performs the following role:
- prepares all buyer and seller documents
- ensures seller documents include a separate Warranty of Title instrument in expanded language (vs. the few lines on a standard bill of sale) to cover unrecorded liens, duty, taxes, etc.
- attains Canadian Tonnage Certificate, which means that we will hold a certificate to indicate how many people the boat can hold, or how much weight we can carry
- attains Canadian Provisional and Permanent Registrations with Transport Canada – I think this means we can then fly a Canadian flag on our boat
- provides assistance with our first US Customs Cruising Permit or Permit to Proceed
Decisions We Had to Make Before Transferring Boat Ownership
Questions we need to consider are:
- How do we wish to take ownership of the vessel: one name, two names, a Canadian company?
- Full legal name(s) of person(s) or company
- Home or company address of record
- Home and business phone numbers
- Our choice of name for the vessel
- Our choice of Canadian Hailing Port
The Canadian hailing port need not be the same as your place of residence. We had always lived in Ottawa but had recently moved 10 minutes outside the town of Carp. We figured Ottawa would be recognizable to far more people, so we chose Ottawa, Canada as our hailing port.
Closing the Boat Sale in Florida
My husband is traveling to Florida tomorrow to help expedite these items, and to prepare for the passage to Palmetto, Florida.