Boat without papers: what has to be done to register it?

My understanding, almost impossible. Where did it come from?

Is it similar to what Johnny Paycheck told his boss?

Find out if it was ever registered . I recently went through this process successfully. It was a pain and I got lucky with a nice justice of the peace/judge who wrote an affidavit for me. It can be done but its not easy.

Find you a buddy in another state that only requires a bill of sale for registration. "Sell" it to him. Have him register it. "Buy" it back from him and then register it here. Or so I've been told. I've had absolutely zero luck in dealing with LDWF.

I did some fence repair work for a man, and he paid cash and gave me an old flat boat, he said he had no papers on it, but it was his dads.Boat has vin numbers on back so took a pic of them and found a WLF agent and he ran the numbers for me,turned out the boat had never been registered. The agent said to get a notarized bill of sale and take to WLF office and i could get it registered.Going this week to try and get it done.

I know Iowa is one.

I bought a 14' flat one time for almost nothing without papers. It had never been registered. I got LDWF to run the VIN and confirmed it had never been registered, but they said because it was never registered I could not register it. So I put it on craigslist for free and didn't get any bites. I finally decided after getting a registered boat to just scrap the 14' unregistered on. Well as it turns out, you can't scrap a registered boat. Went back to LDWF and explained to them I was trying to get rid of it, it was an eye sore in my yard and that I just need SOMETHING/ANYTHING from them that would allow me to scrap it legally. They said no. So, I told them basically the only option you are leaving me is to dump it in the marsh/river. And despite their responsibility to preservation of these areas they would not help. Luckily, someone hit me up the next day about the craigslist ad and took it off my hands. Biggest pain in the arse ever.

One thing you could try that I didn't think about until after I got rid of it, since it has never been registered you can simply tell them your grandfather bought it 40 years ago, to use as a paddle boat in his pond. Now you have inherited it and would like to register it so you can put a motor on it. If necessary forge a bill of sale. Also, tell them it's been in your possession for over 5 years.

good luck wit dat! W&F are pretty tight on things like that. too many past instances were stolen property got sold and registered to a new owner. previous owner shite out of luck. only in cali can you steal a boat or vehicle from the dmv then register it you you next unborn child. you want to stay away from "no papers". a lot of great deals are ruined by that for a reason.

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Would that work with a trailer too.

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We just claim home made on trailers here. never been an issue. LA. may see it different though.