There are so many confused opinions here the ONLY way to clear the air is to read the law. Yes, Jeff, the DMV does have the wrong book. So did the FWC when I called them. The lady at FWC and I found the pertinent section is the Florida Statutes, chapter 328. Here is the link.

Florida Statute 328 VESSELS: TITLE CERTIFICATES; LIENS; REGISTRATION

It's easy to use the table of contents to find the NEWEST laws. Don't go by the people with printed guidebooks. Many of these laws will update again tomorrow, Oct.1, 2009. Stay current...ignorance of the law is not an excuse.

Jon (Headhunter), etching your own falsified number is a third degree felony, clearly addressed in 328 and pointed out by the FWC people. They are serious folks, those FWC, and they carry guns.

Steve Fisherkeller, you are in a world of hurt with your Dart. With both Smitty and Rocco gone all records of your number-less Dart are gone and the FWC definitely WILL treat it as a stolen boat. This is clearly spelled out in 328 as well. Rich, who bought my old Dart, is working on it and I expect the FWC detective to interrogate me this week as a seller of this "stolen" boat. They consider ANY boat without a number to have had the number obliterated and it's probably a stolen boat. I'd get a written statement from the UK manufacturer swearing that there never were etched hull ID numbers and stating how many Darts were shipped here. They can't put you ALL in jail. Can they?

As for Jack's comment on the MSO document, he's spot on, again detailed in 328. I called Performance to try to get a copy of the MSO for my 1998 Nacre 5.0 and was told it was given to the original dealer who received the boat, the Sailing Shop in Orlando. A visit to Sunbiz.org showed that Saling Shop dissolved it's corporation in 2002. I'll call Performance and grovel a bit tomorrow and beg for a copy of the MSO.

When Sailing Shop sold my boat the buyer got the MSO and "should" have used it to get a title from the DMV. Florida DMV says they will search the Hull Identification Number and see if a title was ever generated in trade for the original buyer's MSO. If they find a title in the record they will contact that person and advise them to pay for a duplicate title and then sign the boat over to the current owner. If there was never a titled then the current "owner" (me) must get a court order. I will figure out how to do that in the morning. I have a lawyer friend in the courthouse.

I spent hours on the phone today talking to the DMV, FWC (Tampa), FWC (Tallahassee), and FL Boating and Waterways (branch of FWC law enforcement). Each person I spoke to had an opinion but are not all in agreement. I explained that I was representative of hundreds and perhaps thousands of unregistered and/or untitled sailboat owners. They really have to prepare a solution that works for most of those honest people so the problems don't have to be solved on a case by case basis involving a criminal investigation (or criminal falsification of records by frustrated sailors.)

What a mess.