Lunatic designs and the law...

Hello all. First post here.

What does a plain standard and normal registered boat, if modified to
very unusual characteristics has to comply with in order to legally run
?
Does it have to be presented to some authority for evaluation ?
If planning to home build or modify, would presenting its plans in
advance be a better choice than spending the effort to risk a later
negation ? Or plans is not enough, but engineering calculations be
needed ?
Thanks,
Miguel

Miguel,

I am sure that this is somewhat a local issue, but I have built and
registered a few boats in several states. When I was done or nearly so
with building, I would take a box of material receipts and sometimes
sketches or pictures to the local authority. An individual in said
authority would look (usually with no exmanination) at the box of
receipts and ask searching questions like: "How long is it?" or "Did you
really build this?" and complete a Certificate of Origin. You take the
CoO to the registering authority and give then money. If the first
person you sspoke to did not, then this person will give a Hull
Identification Number to stamp into the hull and the registration number
for the local registration so they can collect personal property taxes.

Nobody actually cares if it floats. (As long as they get your money.)

The USCG has some standards that they can inspect to, but don't expect
to see them ever. You will not unless you force the local law
enforcement to pay attention to the stupid things you are going.

If you modify an existing boat, there is no way the authorities can know
that it is not box stock.

Good luck

Matt Colie





Externet wrote:
> Hello all. First post here.
>
> What does a plain standard and normal registered boat, if modified to
> very unusual characteristics has to comply with in order to legally run
> ?
> Does it have to be presented to some authority for evaluation ?
> If planning to home build or modify, would presenting its plans in
> advance be a better choice than spending the effort to risk a later
> negation ? Or plans is not enough, but engineering calculations be
> needed ?
> Thanks,
> Miguel
>