Documentation and Closing
Coast Guard documentation, state title and registration, and the closing itself. Aspire does not hand this to a stranger and hope. It is handled in house, by the same person, on every transaction.
The decision
Documented or State Registered
For a pleasure boat, documentation is a choice rather than a duty. It stops being a choice the moment a lender is involved, because a first preferred ship’s mortgage can only be recorded against a documented vessel. That single line decides it for most buyers.
You have to be a US citizen to document a vessel. That is the first question, not the last one. A company can own her, but a corporation, partnership or limited liability company has to meet the Coast Guard’s own citizenship test, which is stricter than being registered in a US state. A buyer who is not a citizen registers her with a state instead, or flags her abroad, and we will tell you which applies to you before you are far into a deal.
| Coast Guard documented | State registered | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A federal Certificate of Documentation from the National Vessel Documentation Center. It is a certificate of nationality as much as a registration. | A title and registration from the state, in the way a car is titled and registered. |
| Who it is for | For a pleasure boat, which is nearly everything we handle, it is a choice rather than a duty, and state registration is the alternative. She has to be five net tons or more, which measures enclosed volume rather than weight and which almost any boat over about 25 feet clears, and she has to be owned by a US citizen. So in practice the citizenship is the only real test. It becomes compulsory only when she earns: charter for hire, carrying goods or passengers between US ports, or commercial fishing. | Any boat, whoever owns her. Some states also require a documented vessel to be registered and to show a decal. |
| Financing | A lender can record a first preferred ship's mortgage against her under federal law. This is why almost every financed boat is documented. | No federal mortgage. In states that issue no title there is no way to record a lien at all, which lenders will not accept. |
| Away from home | Evidence of US nationality in international waters, and simpler customs coming back into a US port. | Recognised, but it is not evidence of nationality. |
| Her number | An official number carved or fixed permanently inside the hull, hers for life. No numbers on the bow. | State numbers and a decal on both bows. |
What we handle
Every Filing a Transaction Needs
US Coast Guard documentation
The federal certificate, and every change that can be made to one.
- First documentation of a vessel that has never been documented
- Ownership changes, and changes of name, hailing port or endorsement
- Return to documentation for a boat that has lapsed, keeping her original official number
- Annual renewals, so a certificate never quietly expires
- Abstract of title and lien searches at the National Vessel Documentation Center
- Preferred ship's mortgages prepared and recorded for the lender
- Satisfactions of lien, so a paid mortgage actually comes off her record
- Bills of sale drawn and filed
- Deletion from documentation, which a foreign buyer will need
State titling and registration
Florida first, and the states a South Florida boat most often moves between.
- Florida title and registration for the vessel, her tender and the trailer
- Texas title and registration, including outboard motors and tenders
- Rhode Island registration for a Coast Guard documented vessel
- Sales and use tax worked out before closing rather than discovered after it
- Registration of a documented vessel where the state requires it as well
Closing coordination
The part that decides whether a deal closes on the day it was meant to, and for the figure everybody agreed.
- Ownership research: corporations, limited liability companies and trusts
- Lien research at both state and federal level, before money moves
- Closing documents drawn for buyer and seller
- Every document on the checklist collected and chased, so nothing is found missing on the day
- Proof of duty paid on a boat built abroad, asked for early rather than found missing at the end
- Both closing statements, buyer's and seller's, checked line by line
- Money received and money disbursed reconciled against those statements, to the dollar
- Funds released on her authority alone, once she holds the original documents
- Escrow and funds coordinated with the lender and the closing attorney
- Signatures notarised here rather than at an appointment somewhere else
- Everybody kept moving at once: buyer, seller, both brokers, the bank, the state and the Coast Guard
What it costs, and who pays. The buyer pays for documentation and closing. It is a professional service you engage, charged separately from the brokerage commission. There are variables in it, what the boat needs, which state she is registered in, what the Coast Guard and the state charge this year, so Marissa draws up an estimated invoice rather than quoting a figure she cannot stand behind. You have it at the offer, not at the end.
Two Florida notaries on the deal. John Booysen and Marissa are both commissioned notaries of the State of Florida, so a bill of sale, an affidavit or a lender’s form is witnessed as it is signed. It sounds like a small thing until a closing is waiting on one signature on a Friday afternoon.
Foreign flagging we do not handle. The Cayman Islands, the Marshall Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the rest are a specialist’s work, and it turns on ownership structure and tax as much as on paperwork. We know the documentation agencies that do it every week and we will give you their names, which is worth more to you than us learning it on your boat.
How it runs
Started at the Offer, Not at Closing
Almost every closing that slips does so because the paperwork began too late. A lien nobody searched for, an entity nobody checked, a tax figure nobody worked out. The order below is why Aspire’s closings tend to happen on the day they were set.
At the offer
We run the abstract of title and the lien searches, federal and state, so anything owed against her is known before the deposit is placed rather than on the morning of closing.
While she is surveyed
Ownership is checked back through whatever entity holds her, the closing documents are drawn, and the sales and use tax position is worked out so the figure is no surprise. If she was built abroad, this is when we ask for proof that duty was paid when she was imported.
Before closing
The lender's requirements are collected and the preferred ship's mortgage is prepared. Any existing mortgage is set up to be satisfied and released on the day.
At closing
Funds, bills of sale and signatures are coordinated between both sides, both brokers, the bank and the escrow agent. Nothing is paid out until Marissa has reviewed every document and holds the originals: the release of funds is on her authority, not the broker's.
After closing
Filing with the Coast Guard and the state, the satisfaction of the old lien recorded, and the new certificate followed up until it is in the owner's hands.
Your closing coordinator
Marissa Fritz
Marissa handles Aspire’s closings and the documentation that goes with them. Thirty five years in the marine industry, sixteen of them as closing coordinator for a global yacht dealership covering Florida, Texas and Coast Guard transactions, and hundreds of closings behind her.
She owns her own documentation company, Northern Gulf Vessel Documentation, and works with Aspire rather than for it. That independence is the point of her, and it is the same arrangement as a title agent on a house: the person checking the paperwork is not the person being paid the commission on the sale.
Every document comes to her. Nothing is released until she has been through all of it and has the originals in her hand, and only then does she authorise Aspire to release funds. Not the broker, and not the office.
She is an approved agent with a number of marine lenders, a member of the American Vessel Documentation Association, a Florida notary, and holds a Coast Guard merchant mariner license of her own.
At the closing itself she is the one who reconciles it. Every document on the checklist collected, both closing statements gone through line by line, and the money received and the money sent out matched against those statements to the dollar. That last part is where closings go wrong, and it is the part nobody sees when it goes right.
Which matters for a plain reason: when the bank wants one more signature at four on a Friday, you are dealing with somebody who has done it hundreds of times and who answers her own telephone.
Reach her directly
- Direct line
- (850) 621-6822
- In writing
- Use the estimate form below. It comes straight to her, with what she needs to price it.
Ask her
An Estimate for Your Boat
The fee turns on a handful of things about the boat rather than on a price list: whether she is documented already, where she was built, which state she will be registered in, whether there is a lender. Tell us what you know and Marissa comes back with an estimated invoice, so the figure is in front of you at the offer rather than at the end.
Questions
What Owners Ask
Aspire is a brokerage and not a law firm or a tax adviser. Where ownership structure or tax is the real question, we will say so and put you in front of somebody qualified.
Do I have to document my yacht with the Coast Guard?
Not if she is purely a pleasure vessel: for pleasure use documentation is an alternative to state registration rather than a requirement. It becomes compulsory once she is used in commerce, coastwise trade or fisheries. In practice the decision is usually made by the lender, because a first preferred ship's mortgage can only be recorded against a documented vessel, so a financed boat is nearly always documented.
Can a buyer who is not a US citizen document a yacht?
No. US citizenship is a requirement of documentation, and there is no way round it. A company can be the owner, but a corporation, partnership or limited liability company has to meet the Coast Guard's own citizenship test, which is a good deal stricter than simply being registered in a US state: it goes to who controls the company, not where it was formed. A buyer who is not a citizen registers her with a state instead, or flags her abroad. We would rather raise this at the offer than have it surface a week before closing, which is where it usually surfaces.
Can I be documented and state registered at the same time?
Yes, and in Florida you generally are. The Coast Guard certificate establishes nationality and ownership, and the state registration shows the sales or use tax has been dealt with. A documented vessel registered in Florida carries a decal but no bow numbers.
She was built abroad. What is proof of duty and why does it matter?
A vessel built outside the United States and imported here owes customs duty on entry, and the proof that it was paid is a receipt from US Customs and Border Protection that should travel with the boat for the rest of her life. It matters to you as the buyer because it becomes your problem once you own her: if she was never formally entered, or the paperwork has been lost through two or three owners, the bill can land on the new owner, and the question can hold up documentation and the closing with it. Most European boats down here were imported years ago and the receipt is in the file. We ask for it while she is being surveyed rather than in the week of closing, which is when it is usually discovered to be missing.
Can I charter her once she is documented?
Only with the right endorsement, and that is where a foreign-built hull runs into trouble. Carrying passengers for hire between US ports is coastwise trade, and a coastwise endorsement is restricted to vessels built in the United States. A yacht built abroad can be documented for pleasure perfectly well and cannot be chartered coastwise, however she is endorsed. If chartering is part of why you are buying her, say so early: it can decide which boat you should be looking at.
What is an abstract of title and why does it matter?
It is the Coast Guard's own record of a documented vessel: every owner, every mortgage and every claim of lien recorded against her since she was first documented. It is the only way to know that the person selling her can sell her and that nothing is owed against her. We run one on every transaction, at the offer rather than at the end.
Who pays for documentation and closing?
The buyer does. It is charged separately from the brokerage commission, because it is a professional service you engage rather than something folded into the commission, and the filings are made in the buyer's name. Separately from that, a seller pays whatever it costs to clear a mortgage or lien of their own, since that is their debt and not your paperwork. Because there are variables, what the boat needs, which state she is registered in, what the Coast Guard and the state are charging, Marissa draws up an estimated invoice at the offer instead of a figure off a website that would be wrong by the time you read it.
How long does documentation take?
It moves with the National Vessel Documentation Center's own backlog, which changes through the year, so we will not print a number here that may be wrong by a fortnight. What matters more is when the work starts: begun at the offer rather than at closing, the filing is ready to go the moment funds move.
Can you flag a yacht outside the United States?
Not ourselves. Foreign flagging, in the Cayman Islands, the Marshall Islands, the British Virgin Islands and elsewhere, is a specialist's work: it turns on ownership structure and tax as much as on paperwork, and it wants somebody who does it every week rather than every year. We know the documentation agencies that do and we will give you their names. What we will not do is take it on ourselves or offer it to you as advice, because on that question a brokerage is the wrong adviser.
My boat's documentation has lapsed. Can it be brought back?
Yes. A vessel that has fallen out of documentation can be returned to it, and her original official number is revived rather than replaced. It is a common and straightforward job, and worth doing before you list her, because a lapsed certificate is one more thing for a buyer's lender to stall over.
Buying or Selling This Season?
The coordination is ours. The documentation is a service you engage and pay for, and worth every dollar on the morning a closing would otherwise have slipped. Start with the buyer’s checklist or the Florida tax guide, and we will take the paperwork from the offer onward.
Talk to Aspire