86 v20

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by charlie_the_tuna

went to see this thing today. it kills me to walk away but there are issues that scare me.
1. cant even deal with current owner. can only go through his friend.
2. nobody knows who or where the previous owner is and he was the last one to title the boat.
3. according to DMV the only way to title this boat is for titled owner to apply for duplicate title.

Well, lets approach this from a different direction. In the very last picture I see registration numbers on the hull. What you need is to go to your local Coast Guard (yes, the Coast Guard) station. They can look up the numbers and tell you who the numbers are registered to and the address of that person. A lot of times they will even have the phone number. I know this from first hand experience because several years ago while i was at anchor a boat came by and cut my anchor line with his prop, and kept going. i took off after him and finally caught up to him and told him he cut my line, he basically told me to stuff it. But I got his numbers and wrote them down, then went to the local Coast Guard station to report the incident. The Petty Officer there said it was a very serious incident, that the marine laws are very different than land laws about leaving the scene of an accident and that the guy was facing a $5000 dollar fine and 5 years in jail if convicted. He asked me what i wanted to do and I told him all I really wanted was for the guy to replace my line and anchor. He looked up the numbers and gave me the guys name, his address and his phone number... I called him and after a few F-U's from him I explained what he was facing. Long story short I ordered a new Danforth 12T anchor and 100 feet of 1/2" line plus 6' of rode chain and sent him the bill... next week I got a check from him.

Seems the states are required by law to forward all hull numbers of boats to the Coast Guard for safety and security reasons. Not talking about the VIN numbers, talking about the registration numbers on the side of the boat. So if you went to the Coast Guard and told them about the boat maybe there's a chance you might be able to get the previous owners name and address. It's a longshot i know, but to me it's worth the time to try.