My Classic is officially a Classic Now

[eggsuckindog]

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?

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

[NoBones]

web page

Registration last year for 4 boats $147.50
This year $17.00

See ya, Ken

[eggsuckindog]

web page

Registration last year for 4 boats $147.50
This year $17.00

See ya, Ken

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

[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!

[wavelength]

Got ours in Sept.

[FELLOW-SHIP]

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

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!!

[jason555]

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.

[Bushwacker]

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

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