Last verified: June 9, 2026

If you have been around bigger boats, you have probably heard an owner say their vessel is “Coast Guard documented” instead of registered with the state. Documentation is a federal alternative to state registration, run by the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Vessel Documentation Center (NVDC) in Falling Waters, West Virginia. It has been around since the first Congress, and for a lot of larger boats it is either required or worth doing. For most small recreational boats it does not apply at all.

Here is what documentation actually is, who needs it, what it costs, and the part people get wrong: it does not automatically free you from your state.

What Documentation Is

A Certificate of Documentation (COD) is national registration of a vessel with the federal government. Instead of a state title and a registration card, the boat gets an official number assigned by the Coast Guard, a documented name and hailing port, and a certificate that serves as evidence of U.S. nationality anywhere in the world.

Two things make people choose it. Banks usually require documentation before they will write a marine loan, because a documented vessel can carry a Preferred Ship’s Mortgage that is recorded federally and gives the lender a clear, searchable claim. And if you cruise to the Bahamas or beyond, a COD is the cleanest proof that your boat is American. None of that replaces a state title in the way people assume, which is the point we come back to at the end.

Who Needs to Document a Boat (and Who Doesn’t)

Federal law sets a floor. Under 46 CFR 67.7, any vessel of at least five net tons that works in the coastwise trade or the fisheries must be documented and carry the right endorsement. In plain terms, if a boat of five net tons or more hauls cargo or paying passengers between U.S. points, or fishes commercially in U.S. waters or the Exclusive Economic Zone, documentation is not optional.

For a recreational boat, it is optional. A pleasure vessel of five net tons or more owned by a U.S. citizen is eligible to be documented, but nobody makes you do it. You can document it for the financing and travel reasons above, or you can just register it with your state and skip the federal route.

Net tonnage is the part that trips people up. It measures a boat’s enclosed internal volume, not its weight, so a heavy boat is not automatically five tons. There is no clean length cutoff in the rules, but as a working rule of thumb a monohull around 26 feet or longer almost always comes in at five net tons or more. Anything under five net tons cannot be documented and goes through the state instead.

You Have to Be a U.S. Citizen

Only a vessel owned entirely by U.S. citizens can be documented (46 CFR Part 67, Subpart C). For an individual that is straightforward. For a company, LLC, or trust there are extra citizenship tests the entity has to meet before it qualifies. A non-citizen cannot document a boat, even one kept in the United States.

The Four Endorsements

Every COD carries an endorsement that says what the boat is allowed to do:

  • Registry for foreign trade.
  • Coastwise for moving merchandise or passengers between points in the United States, plus related work like towing, dredging, and salvage.
  • Fishery for commercial fishing in U.S. waters and the EEZ.
  • Recreation for pleasure use only.

A vessel can hold more than one endorsement, but it operates under one at a time. The important limit for most owners is on the recreational endorsement: a recreationally endorsed boat may be used only for pleasure and never for hire. The day you take paying passengers out, the recreational endorsement is the wrong one, and you need a coastwise endorsement and the rules that come with it.

The Forms You File

Documentation now runs through the NVDC’s online eStorefront, where you complete the forms and upload the supporting paperwork. The core forms are:

  • CG-1258, the Application for Initial, Exchange or Replacement of Certificate of Documentation. This is the main application, completed by the owner.
  • CG-1261, the Builder’s Certification and First Transfer of Title. The boat’s builder fills this out, and it is for initial documentation only. Evidence of U.S. build is required for any vessel seeking a fishery or coastwise endorsement.
  • CG-5397, the Application for Simplified Measurement, used to establish the boat’s tonnage when there is no Builder’s Certification.
  • CG-1340, the Bill of Sale, used to transfer a documented vessel. The seller’s signature has to be notarized, and the Coast Guard returns a recorded copy.

Leaving out a required document is the usual reason an application stalls, so the boat’s ownership chain and citizenship evidence need to be complete before you submit.

What It Costs

The fees are set in 46 CFR 67.550 and are not high:

  • Initial documentation: $133 for the first year.
  • Renewal: $26 for one year, and for recreational vessels $52, $78, $104, or $130 to renew two, three, four, or five years at a time.
  • Exchange of a certificate: $84, for example when you change the hailing port or add an endorsement.
  • Recording a bill of sale or similar instrument: $8 per page.
  • Abstract of title (CG-1332): $25.

All of these are non-refundable (46 CFR 67.500(d)). There is no separate tonnage-measurement charge for the simplified method.

Renewal Used to Be Every Year. Now It Doesn’t Have to Be.

A Certificate of Documentation used to expire every twelve months. That changed for recreational owners. Following a 2022 act of Congress, the Coast Guard now issues recreational CODs for one to five years, a rule that took effect December 14, 2023 (Federal Register). You pay the same $26 a year, but you can lock in up to five years and stop thinking about it. Commercial endorsements, including fishery and coastwise, still renew annually.

You renew directly with the NVDC at uscg.mil/nvdc. Which brings up something every documented owner should know about.

Watch the Renewal Letters

Documented boats are public record, and private companies mine that record to send official-looking “renewal” and “reinstatement courtesy notice” letters in the mail. The return addresses are made to resemble the NVDC, and the websites can be mistaken for the real thing. BoatUS has warned boaters about this for years, noting that owners who go through these sites can pay roughly three times the real fee (BoatUS consumer alert).

The renewal itself costs $26 and you can do it yourself in a few minutes at the official site. If a letter pressures you to renew through some other address, set it aside and go straight to uscg.mil/nvdc. Deceptive notices can be reported to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

How a Documented Boat Has to Be Marked

A documented vessel does not display state registration numbers on the bow. Instead the rules call for two markings:

  • The official number, preceded by the abbreviation “NO.”, in block characters at least three inches tall, permanently affixed to a clearly visible interior structural part of the hull (46 CFR 67.121). It has to be done so that altering or removing it would be obvious, so a sticker does not cut it.
  • The name and hailing port, in clearly legible characters at least four inches tall (46 CFR 67.123). On a recreational vessel these are marked together on a clearly visible exterior part of the hull, which in practice is almost always the transom.

The Catch: Documentation Doesn’t Automatically End Your State Obligations

This is where owners get surprised. Federal documentation and state requirements are two separate systems, and documenting your boat does not, by itself, settle things with the state where you keep it. States handle it differently. Some still require a documented vessel to be registered with the state. Others exempt it from registration but still tax it, or still make you title the motor.

North Carolina and South Carolina happen to land on opposite sides of this, so if your boat lives in either state, read what your state still wants from a documented boat before you assume the federal certificate is the end of it. For the surprises that catch first-time SC buyers more broadly, see 5 things you didn’t know about registering a boat in SC, and for the documentation side of a purchase, the NC new vs. used documentation checklist.

Quick Reference

  • Eligible: a vessel of 5 net tons or more (roughly 26 ft and up for a monohull) owned entirely by U.S. citizens.
  • Required for 5-net-ton vessels in the coastwise trade or fisheries; optional for recreational boats.
  • Endorsements: registry, coastwise, fishery, recreation. Recreation is pleasure-only, never for hire.
  • Forms: CG-1258 (application), CG-1261 (builder’s certification), CG-5397 (simplified measurement), CG-1340 (bill of sale), all filed in the NVDC eStorefront.
  • Fees: $133 initial; $26 a year to renew (up to 5 years for recreational); $84 to exchange a certificate.
  • Markings: official number “NO.” 3-inch minimum inside the hull, permanent; name and hailing port 4-inch minimum together on the exterior. No state bow numbers.
  • Renew only at uscg.mil/nvdc, and ignore lookalike renewal letters.
  • State obligations still apply and vary by state.

Let BoatForms Handle the State Side

Documentation is federal, but the state paperwork it leaves behind is exactly what BoatForms is built for. If your documented boat still needs a North Carolina registration or a South Carolina motor title, BoatForms fills out the right state form and builds a checklist of what to send. Free to use, no account required.

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