Licensing vs. Registration vs. Documentation…

One of today’s boat projects: Get Katana’s license transferred to us.

I will admit that I have done some reading on this issue, prior to our boat purchase. What I have learned is that there is a big difference between Licensing and Registration. This is further complicated by the fact that in the United States Registration is the equivalent to our Licensing. Our Registration they call Documentation. Confused? It’s not all that hard to be.

It appears that in Canada, Licensing doesn’t really have anything to do with ownership. It seems to primarily relate to taxes (big surprise there). To prove that you actually have title to the vessel, which sounds like it would be important for those taking their boat out of the country, the boat needs to be Registered. We’ll deal with Step 1 first: Licensing.

After speaking with a helpful man at Service Canada I was told to bring a copy of the bill of sale, completed pleasure craft license form and ourselves to the local Service Canada office. As they are only open until 4:00 PM it will have to wait until tomorrow. I do think that I have everything all filled out though.

Another of today’s boat tasks was topping up the distilled water in the boat’s batteries. Katana has eight 6 volt batteries. I was told to check the fluid levels on a weekly basis. The challenge with topping up the fluid levels is the 4 of the batteries only have a couple of inches of clearance above them making access to them a tad tricky. After a bit of brainstorming we acquired a bottle with a hose that looks similar to a hospital IV drip. It seemed to do the trick although I still think there must be an easier way!