[Bushwacker]

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!