When you own a large boat like a yacht, pleasure boat, or a large commercial sailing vessel, there are many responsibilities that go along with ownership that you need to be aware of. There are specific regulations that you must follow, so your ship complies with the current maritime laws in the United States. These regulations can include the necessity to properly document your vessel so that it’s listed with the United States Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security. This is done so that the government is aware of commerce on the waterways, and vessels can be tracked for security reasons. Documentation is just one of the duties of the National Vessel Documentation Center, an agency that you may need to work with when you need paperwork for your boat.
All about the NVDC
This center, often referred to as the NVDC, is a department of the U.S. Coast Guard. The facility itself is physically located in Falling Waters, West Virginia, but there are many transactions you can conduct with the center online on their official website. The job of the center is to assist in the facilitation of maritime commerce and to help enforce the maritime laws and regulations. The center provides a registry of vessels in the United States and, depending on the size of your boat and the nature of the ship (either recreational or commercial), you may be required to document your vessel with the department.
Other Services Available
All of your documentation filing, whether you’re seeking to document a boat for the first time, are renewing your documentation, or transferring documentation, is done through the National Vessel Documentation Center. The paperwork is filed directly with the organization and gets processed by them, as well. The center can also perform other services for you relating to documentation, such as getting you an abstract of the title or copy of your certificate, among other services.
Dealing with the Center
While you can do paperwork directly through the National Vessel Documentation Center, here at U.S. Vessel Documentation Online, LLC, we work on your behalf to take care of filing the paperwork for you. We check everything over for errors to make sure your forms are filled out correctly, so there are no problems or delays in processing. You can take care of all of your center filings with us when you go to our website and click on the appropriate forms you wish to file.
