Re: My Classic is officially a Classic Now
 

If nothing else else, its an antique homebuilt :)

It says 1974 homebuilt on my registration, the year we salvaged it.

Dont think the VIN is a possibility, according to 65bowrider, Mosely made Seacrafts VINs were plate only, not in fiberglass and mine is long gone.

Besides, I dont care if the state thinks its a Seacraft or not, I know it is, the proof is undeniable, I just want the cheaper reg fee and the cool sticker :cool: . Unless I missed it, I didnt see anything in the statues that said homebuilts werent eligible.

So going antique homebuilt may be the way to go

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic Now
 

Many thanks to all for the great info!!!! Early last week I received my new 2010 registration and sticker for a smooth fee of $4.25 per year and the best part....there was no bill for the $4.25, I guess they felt sorry for me having such and "old vessel". And to top it off just got back from a weekend in the the Keys and the State of Florida sent me my antique vessel sticker. Life is good.

Then it hit me, I paid over $4.25 for just a single gallon of gas last June in the Keys. Jeeeez...

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic Now
 

I never had my boat surveyed, but it states 1973 on my regisration renewal form. Can I just bring this to a surveyor and pay a few bucks to sign or?

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic Now
 

The form says the owner can sign off on it.
Note that some tax collector agents will say it has to have the actual original power plant. It does not. It has to be "powered by its original type power plant." Not to mention that outboard hulls are not manufactured with power plants.

The USCG recognizes the following "types" of power plants: inboard, outboard, sterndrive, jet drive, and "other". If your antique vessel has not been converted from sterndrive to outboard, you have the original "type" power plant. My '72 is powered by an '06 Mercury, and I had to go get the actual text of the statute and show it to the supervisor before I could register the boat as an antique.

Here is the text of the law, Florida Statutes 327.72(2)(a)
A vessel that is at least 30 years old, used only for recreational purposes, and powered by the vessel's original-type power plant may be registered as an antique vessel. When applying for registration as an antique vessel, the owner of such a vessel shall submit certification, as prescribed by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles or from a marine surveyor that the vessel meets the requirements of this paragraph.

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic Now
 

You just fill it out mail it to Tally - they send you a letter and take it to the tag office - don't make it harder than it is - just say yes to everything they really don't care

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic Now
 

web page

Registration last year for 4 boats $147.50 :eek:
This year $17.00 :)

See ya, Ken

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic Now
 

147.50 - 17 = 5.67 big bottles of Evan Williams fine Kentucky Bourbon, sounds like your sponsoring the next party

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic now
 

Took my renewal notice to the tag office yesterday along with the completed HSMV 87243. They were a little confused, so they called Tallahassee, and also downloaded the official procedure, VSRS-01, "ANTIQUE VESSEL (30 YEARS) AUTHENTICATED DECALS", which they gave me a copy of. It says the DMV will issue the Antique Decal at no charge. The key part of procedure VSRS-01 reads as follows:

"III. APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR ANTIQUE DECAL:

The following must be submitted to the Bureau of Titles and Registrations, Neil Kirkman Building, Room A330, MS #72, Tallahassee, Florida 32399
A. A copy of the most current certificate of vessel registration in the applicant's name.
B. A form HSMV 87243, Antique Vessel Certification, completed by the owner or a licensed marine surveyor. This document shall certify that the vessel meets or exceeds the standards established in 328.72(2), Florida Statutes."

The tag office even made a copy of my registration certificate for me to send in. I noticed my registration shows length as 20'8", so I circled that, noted that it should be 19'8" and enclosed a copy of the specification page from 1972 Seafari brochure, so will be interesting to see if they fix that! As DonV indicated, the DMV evidently sends you the Antique decal and a letter saying you qualify for the antique rate. You take letter to local tag office, who issues the registration sticker, and only charges the service fees; the normal registration fee ($51.08 in Palm Beach County!) is waived!

Fellowship, thanks for letting the Florida folks know about this significant savings in cost of owning our Classic SeaCrafts! It's been available for old cars for a long time but didn't realize it also applied to boats!

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic now
 

Got ours in Sept.

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic now
 

Hi Guys;

Glad to see you guy taking the advantage here in Fl. to be a Official Classic Seacraft owner. It’s nice to point to the Sticker on the side of the Boat when people ask me about your ride.. I guess this is the only area in life that getting older is a good and proud thing.

FellowShip

………………………….

Just for the Grins

Official Antique Classic SeaCraft Owner

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic now
 

I just returned from the tag agency with my new antique vessel registration. It was painless. A copy of the form and the new registration went in the mail today to Tallahassee for my decal. This was so simple! My good friend who is the original owner of a 1969 20SF is sending his in as well. He is mad because he could have done this I guess ten years ago but did not know!

Thank you Fellow-ship, et al!!

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic now
 

Another point of interest to take note of is the sales tax you pay when you purchase a boat. In Florida if you purchase a boat with an outboard motor you only have to pay sales tax on the value of the hull because the motor is not a permanent part of the boat. So you can therefore get a bill of sale from the owner and breakdown the large components. For example if you pay $10,000 for a boat, you cn breakdown the bill of sale to say $2000 for hull, and $8000 for outboard motor (assuming the value of the motor is close to this amount). Your sales tax will be based on hull value only. You can also break out electronics and trailer value from that gross purchase price. This is great info if you are trying to sell your boat and the buyer has a hard time coming up with sales tax money, or you are buying a boat and can save a bunch of sales tax dollars come registration time. This only works in private sales. If you buy from a dealer they will charge you full sale tax on purchase price only. I did this last year when I purchased my 23 from a private party. One other fact about the antique decal. If you rgistered or renwed your reg this year and your boat qualified for the antique vessel program, you can go to the tax office and get an abatement form, fill it out and request a refund of the registration $ you paid and they will refund the regisration amount less the antique vessel fee to you. They will only go back on the current year. I found out about this and tried to go back three years but they would only go back the one year. Problem is most of the clerks do not k now about these laws until you make them do some research then they find them and apply them to you.

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic now
 

Great point. I'm headed back in for my abatement form tomorrow!!

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic now
 

Got my antique sticker in mail yesterday; was able to renew online today at the new lower rate . . . $13.20 for 2 years!

Thanks again to Fellowship, No Bones and all those that provided the info! Denny

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic now
 

Got my antique sticker in the mail today. The whole registration process took 17 days, start to finish!

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic now
 

I got the antique sticker about a week after mailing application; renewed on line and got new registration sticker about 4-5 days later, so about 11-12 days total. I was amazed that Tallahassee could move that fast! They still didn't correct the 20'8" hull length, but can't complain about their response time!

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic now
 

I wanted to bump this thread as I just went through the process successfully, thanks to you guys.

It was a little weird paying more to register my trailer than my boat.

Re: My Classic is officially a Classic now
 

On another note - this will follow to a new owner as well, we switched the boat to Susans name this year and it still came in at $5.25. Nifty detail as I forgot to check it until she already did it and was worried she paid the full pop.