Boat Talk — Practical Guides for Boat Owners and Buyers

Boat Talk — Practical Guides for Boat Owners and BuyersFree, practical articles on hull identification numbers, buying a used boat, surveys, and keeping boat records that survive a sale. No account needed to read them.Most recent

Boat Maintenance Schedule: What to Do and When — Your engine and equipment manuals are the real schedule; everything else falls into four rhythms — after every trip, monthly in season, once a year, and every few years. A practical checklist for each, with the intervals that vary and why.

How Often Should a Boat Be Hauled Out and Bottom Painted? — Most boats kept in the water are hauled once a year. Bottom paint is a separate question — ablative paints often last two or three seasons while hard paints are usually refreshed annually. How to tell what your boat actually needs.

How to Check Whether a Boat Has a Lien Against It — Where you look depends on how the boat is titled: an abstract of title for a US Coast Guard documented vessel, the state title agency for a state-titled boat, and direct questions to the yard and marina. Plus the liens no registry will show you.

How to Read a Marine Survey Report — Read the scope and limitations first, then the findings in the surveyor's own priority order, and treat the valuation as an opinion. A section-by-section guide to what a survey report is telling you — and what it is not.

What Boat Records Should You Keep, and for How Long? — Keep anything that proves identity, ownership, condition, or work done — and keep it for the life of the boat, not the length of your ownership. A category-by-category list, plus how to store it so it is still readable in ten years.

What Happens During a Marine Survey? — A surveyor spends several hours on the hull, structure, systems and safety gear, usually with the boat hauled out, then writes up the findings. Here is what happens on the day, what a survey does not cover, and how to prepare for one.

What to Do If Your Boat Has No Hull Identification Number — A boat with no HIN is not automatically a problem — boats built before November 1972 often never had one. Here is how to tell which case you are in, how states assign a number, and why you must never create one yourself.

When Do Boat Flares and Fire Extinguishers Expire? — In US waters, pyrotechnic flares expire 42 months after their date of manufacture, and disposable fire extinguishers 12 years after theirs. Here is every dated item aboard, where to read the date, and how to dispose of expired gear.

How to Find the HIN on a Boat (and What to Do If It's Missing) — The HIN is on the outside of the transom, upper starboard corner. Here is exactly where to look, where the hidden duplicate usually is, and what to do when the number is unreadable or does not match the paperwork.

What Is a Hull Identification Number? A Boat Owner's Guide — A Hull Identification Number is the 12-character code that permanently identifies one boat hull. Here is what each character means, how to read yours, and what a HIN can and cannot tell you.

What to Check Before Buying a Used Boat — Work through identity, paperwork, condition, systems and a sea trial in that order — and get an independent survey before you pay. A practical pre-purchase checklist for used boat buyers.