Vessel Documentation and Numbering

What the rule requires

Eligible, required, excluded — three different questions

Any vessel of at least five net tons wholly owned by a citizen or citizens of the United States is eligible for documentation, and that includes vessels used exclusively for recreation and vessels used in foreign trade 46 CFR §67.5. Eligibility is a door standing open, nothing more.

The requirement is narrower. A vessel of at least five net tons must hold a Certificate of Documentation bearing a valid endorsement appropriate to the activity when she engages in the fisheries on the navigable waters of the United States or in the Exclusive Economic Zone, or in coastwise trade, unless exempted 46 CFR §67.7. Coastwise trade includes the transportation of passengers or merchandise between points embraced within the coastwise laws of the United States 46 CFR §67.3, and that clause is what puts a six-pack charter squarely inside §67.7. Carrying paying passengers from one U.S. point to another is a trade, not recreation, whatever the boat looks like.

Below the threshold nothing is available: a vessel of less than five net tons is excluded from documentation 46 CFR §67.9. A vessel that does not operate on U.S. navigable waters or in the fisheries in the EEZ is exempt from the requirement, and so is a non-self-propelled vessel qualified for the coastwise trade while engaged in that trade within a harbour, on the rivers or lakes of the United States other than the Great Lakes, or on the internal waters or canals of any State. A vessel exempt under either of those provisions may still be documented at the owner's option.

The certificate itself serves as evidence of vessel nationality and permits the vessel to be subject to preferred mortgages, besides being required for operation in certain trades 46 CFR §67.1.

Endorsements

The document is form CG-1270, and it may be issued with a registry, coastwise, fishery, or recreational endorsement 46 CFR §67.15. One certificate may bear simultaneous endorsements for recreation and more than one trade, and where it does, the actual use of the vessel determines the endorsement under which she is operating. Except for the recreational endorsement, an endorsement is conclusive evidence that the vessel is entitled to engage in the specified trade .

That "actual use" note answers a whole family of questions. A vessel endorsed for both recreation and coastwise does not choose her status; the trip she is making chooses it for her.

What you owe as the person in command

The person in command of a documented vessel must have on board the original Certificate of Documentation currently in effect for that vessel 46 CFR §67.313, and must produce it on the demand of any person acting in an official public capacity 46 CFR §67.315. Both duties fall on the person in command, not on the owner ashore.

Three exceptions apply to each, identically: non-self-propelled vessels not engaged in foreign trade; when the certificate has been submitted to the National Vessel Documentation Center for exchange under §67.167(d) or (e); and when the vessel is in storage or out of the water. Read that middle exception closely — it covers only the two exchanges made while the certificate remains valid, not a certificate that has been invalidated.

A boarding officer asks for the vessel's documentation. You hand over a certified copy; the original is in the owner's safe ashore. Compliant?

No. §67.313 requires the original certificate currently in effect to be on board, and §67.315 requires the person in command to produce that original on demand. A copy satisfies neither, and neither of the three exceptions covers a self-propelled vessel in service with a valid certificate.</details>

Marking — the certificate alone does not let you sail

No Certificate of Documentation is deemed valid for operation of the vessel until the vessel is marked in accordance with subpart I 46 CFR §67.120. The application procedure states the same duty as a step: on receipt of the certificate and prior to operation, ensure the vessel is marked 46 CFR §67.141. Failure to maintain those markings later makes the vessel subject to deletion from the roll of actively documented vessels 46 CFR §67.171.

Hailing port

On application for any Certificate of Documentation the owner must designate a hailing port to be marked on the vessel; it must be a place in the United States listed in the Department of Commerce's Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 55DC, and it must include the State, territory or possession in which it is located 46 CFR §67.119. The Director, NVDC has final authority over disputes about the propriety of the port designated. Vessels documented before 1 July 1982 are not held to the State-inclusion requirement until the owner elects a new hailing port.

Official number, and the vessel that has never been documented

An official number is applied for on form CG-1258, either at initial documentation or when an existing vessel has been severed into two or more vessels — in that case the original vessel's official number is retired and each resulting vessel needs a new one 46 CFR §67.111. Gross and net tonnage and dimensions are determined for initial documentation, whenever they change on a documented vessel, and when they have changed since a returning vessel was last documented 46 CFR §67.105.

For instruments presented for filing, a vessel that has been documented is identified by name and official number; a vessel that has never been documented is identified by its Hull Identification Number assigned under 33 CFR 181.25, or by descriptive information such as length, breadth, depth, year of build and builder, together with any numbers assigned under 33 CFR part 173 46 CFR §67.205. Those part 173 numbers are the State certificate of number carried by the undocumented vessel .

When the certificate goes invalid

Two lists, and the difference between them is timing. Under 46 CFR §67.167, the certificate and every endorsement on it become invalid immediately when the ownership of the vessel changes in whole or in part, the general partners of a partnership change, the State of incorporation of a corporate owner changes, the vessel's name changes, the hailing port changes, or the vessel is placed under the command of a person who is not a citizen of the United States.

The second list takes effect immediately if the vessel is not at sea, or on her next arrival in port anywhere in the world if she is: change of gross or net tonnage or dimensions, changes among trust beneficiaries or trustees, death of a tenant by the entirety, restrictions added or substituted, a change in the legal name of an owner, a self-propelled vessel becoming non-self-propelled or the reverse, endorsements added, deleted or substituted, and discovery of a substantive or clerical error made by the issuing documentation officer. A certificate invalidated under that second list stays good for 30 days for one purpose only: filing a new mortgage, amendment, assignment, assumption or subordination agreement.

Exchange is the remedy for those events, and for the owner's election to designate a new managing owner. Replacement is a different transaction, required when the certificate is lost, mutilated, or wrongfully withheld from the owner; a mutilated certificate must be physically surrendered to the NVDC 46 CFR §67.169. Where the owner alleges wrongful withholding, they submit a statement of reasons to the Director and, on that determination, apply for replacement under §67.141 46 CFR §67.151. There is no fee for a replacement due to wrongful withholding, and application fees generally are not refundable 46 CFR §67.500.

Grounds for deletion worth holding: the vessel is placed under foreign flag, sold or transferred in whole or part to a non-citizen, any owner ceases to be a citizen, she no longer measures at least five net tons, she ceases to be capable of transportation by water, or the owner fails to exchange the certificate or to maintain the markings . The managing owner, who must be one of the owners and is designated on the CG-1258, has 10 days to notify the NVDC of a change of address 46 CFR §67.113.

Telling it apart

One criterion sorts the whole topic: net tonnage first, then the activity the vessel is engaged in.

Excluded — less than five net tons. Documentation is not available at all, and the owner's-option provision does not reach her; she is identified instead by her State certificate of number and her HIN 46 CFR §67.9, 46 CFR §67.205.
Eligible — at least five net tons and wholly owned by U.S. citizens. May document, need not, unless the activity triggers §67.7. The recreational vessel and the vessel in foreign trade both live here 46 CFR §67.5.
Required — at least five net tons and engaged in the fisheries on U.S. navigable waters or in the EEZ, or in coastwise trade. Most often misfiled: the small charter boat, because her owner thinks of her as a pleasure boat between hires 46 CFR §67.7.
Exempt by where she works — does not operate on U.S. navigable waters or in the fisheries in the EEZ. May be documented at the owner's option.
Exempt by hull and route — non-self-propelled, qualified for coastwise trade, working within a harbour, on the rivers or lakes other than the Great Lakes, or on a State's internal waters or canals. The Great Lakes carve-out is the detail candidates drop.

Working a question

A 38-foot inboard sportfisherman measuring 9 net tons, wholly owned by one U.S. citizen. You are hired as skipper to carry six passengers for hire from a marina, out to the grounds, and back to a second marina in the same State. Midway through the season the owner sells a quarter interest to his brother.

Tonnage. 9 net tons is at or above five, so §67.9(a) does not exclude her. Documentation is at least available.
Activity. Six passengers for hire between two points embraced within the coastwise laws is transportation of passengers between such points, which is coastwise trade under the §67.3 definition. §67.7 therefore requires a Certificate of Documentation with an appropriate endorsement.
Exemption check. She is self-propelled, so the §67.9(c) exemption cannot apply; she works on navigable waters of the United States, so §67.9(b) cannot apply either. The requirement stands.
Which endorsement governs. If her certificate bears both recreational and coastwise endorsements, the trip decides: carrying passengers for hire, she operates under the coastwise endorsement 46 CFR §67.15.
Before you take a line off. The original certificate currently in effect must be aboard, and the vessel must be marked in accordance with subpart I — until she is, the certificate is not valid for her operation at all.
The quarter-interest sale. Ownership has changed in part. The certificate and every endorsement on it are invalid immediately, not on arrival at the next port, and the owner must send the certificate to the NVDC and apply for an exchange. Sailing her for hire the following morning is sailing an undocumented vessel in coastwise trade.
If instead the owner had put a non-citizen in command, the result is the same instant invalidity — that trigger sits in the immediate list.

Same vessel: a yard job adds a swim platform and her registered length and net tonnage both change. She is on passage when the measurement is issued. When does her certificate become invalid?

On her next arrival in port anywhere in the world. A change in gross or net tonnage or dimensions sits in §67.167(c), which takes effect immediately only if the vessel is not at sea. Contrast the ownership change in step 6, which invalidates the moment it happens.</details>

Where candidates lose the point

Answers in gross tons. The threshold in Part 67 is five net tons, every time. Both tonnages are determined under 46 CFR §67.105, so both numbers exist for the vessel and a distractor phrased in gross tons looks respectable. If the option says gross, it is wrong on this question.
Reads "eligible" as "required." A privately used 32-foot cruiser over five net tons is eligible under §67.5 and required by nothing; documentation for her is the owner's choice. The trap answer is the one asserting that any vessel over five net tons must be documented.
Applies the owner's option to a small vessel. The option to document a vessel voluntarily belongs to vessels exempt under §67.9(b) or (c). A 3-net-ton vessel is excluded, and no election by her owner changes that.
Treats a name or hailing port change as a paperwork errand. Both appear in the immediate-invalidity list. A candidate who has just read the "next arrival in port" language attaches it to the wrong list and answers that the vessel may continue trading home.
Misreads the 30 days. That residual validity exists only for filing a new mortgage or an amendment, assignment, assumption or subordination agreement, only after an invalidation under §67.167(c). It is not a grace period for operating the vessel.
Puts the certificate duty on the owner. §67.313 and §67.315 name the person in command. On the exam that is you.
Confuses the three identifiers. The official number is assigned by the Director, NVDC on application by form CG-1258 46 CFR §67.111; the Hull Identification Number comes from the builder under 33 CFR 181.25; the State certificate of number is issued under 33 CFR part 173. Only the first is a documentation number.

Check yourself

You are offered work running a 26-foot outboard skiff measuring 4 net tons, taking four anglers for hire out of a Florida marina. The owner asks whether he should document her. What do you tell him?

He cannot. A vessel of less than five net tons is excluded from documentation under §67.9(a), and the owner's-option provision in §67.9(d) reaches only vessels exempt under paragraphs (b) or (c). She operates on her State certificate of number issued under 33 CFR part 173.</details>

A documented vessel carries simultaneous recreational and coastwise endorsements. Today she is running paying passengers. Which endorsement is she operating under, and who decides?

The coastwise endorsement. Where a certificate bears more than one endorsement, the actual use of the vessel determines the endorsement under which she is operating 46 CFR §67.15. Neither the owner's intention nor the order of endorsements on the certificate governs.</details>

The new Certificate of Documentation arrives by post on Friday. The charter is booked for Saturday and the vessel's name and hailing port are not yet marked on her. May you sail?

No. Under §67.120 no certificate is deemed valid for operation of the vessel until she is marked in accordance with subpart I, and §67.141(c) requires the owner to see to the marking prior to operation. Persistent failure to maintain markings also makes her subject to deletion.</details>

Your owner's corporation reincorporates in another State. He tells you the certificate holds good until renewal. Is he right?

No. A change in the State of incorporation of a corporate owner invalidates the certificate and all endorsements immediately under §67.167(b), and the certificate must be sent to the NVDC with an application for exchange.</details>

Where must a hailing port be located, and what must it include?

It must be a place in the United States included in the Department of Commerce's FIPS Publication 55DC, and it must include the State, territory or possession in which it lies 46 CFR §67.119. Disputes about the propriety of the designation are settled by the Director, NVDC.</details>

The owner cannot get the certificate back from a former partner who is holding it. What is the sequence, and what does it cost?

The owner submits a statement to the Director, NVDC setting out the reasons for the allegation of wrongful withholding; on that determination, they apply for replacement under §67.141 46 CFR §67.151. There is no fee for a replacement due to wrongful withholding 46 CFR §67.500.</details>

A documented vessel is severed into two hulls, each to be documented. What happens to her official number?

It is retired, and the owner of each resulting vessel must apply on form CG-1258 for designation of a new official number 46 CFR §67.111.</details>