THE DINGY WAITING GAME AND NUMBERS GAME

After 16 years my 8 foot Porta Boat dingy had seen better days. It still floated well but, a pesky small leak dispite my half hearted attempt to find it eluded me. After sixteen years it really did not owe me anything. So I bought a new one to replace it. The new model has some improvements over my original Porta Boat including an attached folding transom. Which means less pieces to store on board if I ever carry it folded on board.

A few weeks ago I put it together and began using it to row out to the mooring. After awhile I wanted to start using one of the two electric outboards I have with it. This requires that I register it with the state and pay some sales tax for it's purchase. It had been a number of years since I went to the DMV to register anything. But, I knew there would be a certain amount of waiting and bureaucracy. I finally decided to make the attempt and went down to one of the local Department of Motor Vehicles. I order to minimize any wasted time waiting I downloaded the proper documents and filled them out at home. When I got there I met my first line and after a short wait was met by a DMV representative. I explained that I wanted to register my the boat and showed her my filled out documents. She looked at them and gave me a number.  I was two hours  before later my number was finally called.

I went to my assigned window and handed over my documents relieved that I would soon be out of there. But, there was a problem my original Bill of Sale from the Porta Boat company was a copy on an 8 x 11 piece of paper not the 6 x 8 inches. Also I had not put in the Hull Identification Number on the document thinking I would just fill it in at the DMV. Apparently this was not acceptable and though I argued the original Bill of Origin from the company was also a copy just a different size piece of paper it still seemed to cause a problem. A call to the main DMV office did not resolve the problem. I needed to come back with the original Bill of Origin and also a photograph of the HIN number in order to register the Dingy.

Needless to say the idea of another two hour wait just because of the dimensions of piece of paper was not making my day. So I left to deal with this another day. As I was gathering my documents to leave the clerk mentioned I could make an appointment on line for my next visit and save time. Hmmm, that sounds good. So I went home and made an appointment a few days later and bought all the properly sized documents and photograph of the HIN number on the Dingy. I was expecting just a few minutes wait since I now had an appointment. No such luck. But, the good news was that instead of a two hour wait I only had to sit there for an hour. I finally got up to the window and submitted my properly sized documents and was never asked for the photo of the boats HIN number.

I finally got the registration number and State sticker showing the dingy was properly registered and I could finally use my electric outboard on it.  Relieved that the DMV experience was finally over I decided to complete the registration process by driving over to the Marine store and buy the characters and numbers that I needed to attach to the boats hull. I entered the store and went to the aisle where the 3 inch numbers were on display.  Once applied my trials and tribulations of registering would be a
thing of the past. But, it was not to be. It seems the store had all the alpha characters and numbers I needed except one which was out of stock.  Apparently Neptune has some influence of land based nautical procedures and has been having a good laugh at my expense as I attempt to finish the registration process.

But, I cut short his enjoyment as I quickly found a way to avoid the wait while the Marine store restocked the all important 3 inch high number. I went online and found that instead of paying one dollar for each registration number and alpha character I could buy them online for a little over eight dollars for a pack containing all of the numbers and characters I needed.

Also the Shoreline Marine Letter Kit contained four of each character and numbers so I would also have extra's should any fall off and need to be replaced. So two days later I had everything I needed to finish the arduous registration process and could once again be back on the water.