Sunfish title/registration

I’m restarting this as a separate thread. This is an issue that remains poorly understood and it has frequently arisen in discussions with powerboaters and Wildlife Service folks.

http://www.ncwildlife.org/Boating_Waterways/

A title is a permanent, one-time document/record that stays with the boat. Registration is a renewable license to use North Carolina public waters and it requires display of an ID number and a current sticker.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission says: “Anyone who purchases or transfers a motorized vessel or sailboat 14 feet or longer . . . will be required to title the vessel effective Jan 1, 2007. . . . “. That clearly exempts Sunfish from the title requirement.

NCWRC also says “ . . . If you choose to title your vessel it must be registered as well.”
So, one can choose to title the ‘fish, but in that case it must also be registered, with the attendant ID and renewal requirements.

I found the same to be true in FL: once you title the sunfish you need to get numbers and renew the title every year. I ended up doing it just because I wanted to have it registered to me. That said, they did not use the serial number for the boat. Instead they came up with their own numbering system that supposedly identifies the boat but has no relationship with the only number the factory put in the boat.

DMV as its best.