BYYB Forums

Yesterday was my weekender inspection.

The wildlife police showed up and we went around back to see the boat. I had a 1 inch thich stack of paperwork for him which included a state form for home built vehicles and copies of all the recipts for all the stuff I bought to build the boat with.

The FWC cop spent the next ten minutes in silence looking at every single recipt. Then he asked to see the originals. Next he wanted to see photos of the build process and finally he looked at the plans. What he read while looking at the plans were the notes I made in the margins.

When he was finally done looking at all the paperwork I had, He spent about thirty seconds looking at the boat. The only question he asked me about it was if it had a bilge pump. He didn't ask for the lights to be turned on, he didn't ask me to beep the horn.. etc. I was a little disapointed because I didn't get to show off my hoistable masthead light (which I hope never to even need and only made for the inspection)

It's pretty clear to me that the inspection process seems more geared towards tax collection. They want to be sure that you're not trying to dodge any taxes you might owe. He told me that I should be careful to never lose my build photos and my recipts.. he said "The boat is just a block of wood, your boat is really in these recipts and build notes and build photos."

The guy was friendly and nice and the inspection was fairly painless.

A note to the dude with the small boat who was asking about inspection yesterday evening. They put my boat's lenght at 19 feet 6 inches. He didn't care about any on deck lengths, any water line lengths, just the over-all length.

SO now i'm off to get my stickers...

Finally, here is a photo of my finished boat.
I'm going out on sunday to see if it will float.
It's been a long time coming so wish me luck.
Hopefully I won't end up swimming like a duck.

Awlright David,
Congratulations! Good luck on Your shakedown cruse it must feel awsome to be where You are right now, cant wait to be there m'self.She looks great, A seaworthy Vessal if I ever saw one.
Brian.

Followup!

I just got back from the DMV ... The most terrible thing happened!

They gave me a sticker which clashes with my color scheme.

Red, White and blue... with a GREEN sticker???? I'm just furious!!!



Heh

She said that in October, we'll be getting Red stickers so it's only three months that the poor boat will have to endure this horrible injustice. (The year after Red is BLUE!)

Also, at the DMV, their primary concern was also the taxes paid on materials issue. Which is to be expected from that group.

So, a note to new builders in Florida... Save ALL of your recipts. Take photos of the process, take notes.. and be ready to show all of this to the inspector and the DMV when it comes time to register. I was told many people aren't prepared for this and have to scramble at the last minute to come up with recipts, or pay taxes AGAIN when it comes time to register.

When I registered my boat in GA, I brought the boat to them because it was just 3 miles from my work. They asked for a photo to keep and info on the boat dimensions and such. Then they came out to look at the boat dropped their jaws and applied a sticker to the back of the boat with a hull ID #. They also gave me one to place hidden inside the boat that only they and I know where to find it. They did look the boat over but only to oooh and ahhh over it. I then filled out the forms for my registration, sent them $15 and got my sticker for the side of the boat. It was pretty painless and never did they ask for recipts. You might want to save them anyways though, you never know when things might change

Keith

Quote:When I registered my boat in GA, I brought the boat to them because it was just 3 miles from my work. They asked for a photo to keep and info on the boat dimensions and such. Then they came out to look at the boat dropped their jaws and applied a sticker to the back of the boat with a hull ID #. They also gave me one to place hidden inside the boat that only they and I know where to find it.

They told me to put the number on my boat myself. Said I should find a way to attach the VIN somewhere on the boat. So I puzzled about it for a little while and went to Walmart where they have a self-serve dog tag engraving machine. The tags are brass with various shapes and platings of your chosing. And I had a nice millitary dog tage style plate made up with the vin on it for cheap cheap.