home port?

chase · Post by **chase** » Oct 3rd, '06, 19:28

OK, I know who I am but where am I from?

For someone that lives 300 miles inland and runs the coastal Gypsy program (cruise up and down the coast and tie up wherever the wind blows me), what should be my home port? My hometown here in the mountains? An obscure SC inlet with the best oyster beds nearby? The Bahamian Island of my birth?

I see boats at the coast with inland, landlocked towns on the transom. Is there a convention, a code, a moral geographical codus here? I'd love your input.

Chase

mahalocd36 · Post by **mahalocd36** » Oct 3rd, '06, 20:11

According to the USCG, the port must be a place in the United States.
Doesn't have to be your home port, nor a place on the water.

So, you can't use the Bahamas.

"The "hailing port" must include both a place and a State, Territory, or possession of in the United States. The state may be abbreviated."

I see this violated all the time - just the town/city, with no state.

I think the convention is to use either your hometown, or your homeport. I also see this violated all the time as well. For instance I know a boat that just has 'Boston' as it's port and the owner doesn't live in Boston, nor moor there. Just didn't change it from the previous owner.

mahalocd36 · Post by **mahalocd36** » Oct 3rd, '06, 20:13

This is if you care about CG documentation:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin ... &TYPE=TEXT

Jerry Hammernik · Post by **Jerry Hammernik** » Oct 3rd, '06, 21:47

I don't know. It just seems to me that "hailing port" implies someplace that is actually adjacent to the water. I guess it isn't a life or death issue, but traditions got to be traditions for a reason.

Neil Gordon · Post by **Neil Gordon** » Oct 4th, '06, 04:55

Jerry Hammernik wrote: It just seems to me that "hailing port" implies someplace that is actually adjacent to the water.

I agree with Jerry. It's not about where the owner is from, it's where the boat is from.

Steve Laume · Post by **Steve Laume** » Oct 4th, '06, 06:28

whenever I see those dry land hailing ports I just start to wonder how the boat could have sailed from there to where ever it is floating. Wilmington, Delaware was always very popular for tax purposes. If you are a Parrot Head, Margaritaville would work. "It can be wherever you want it to be". Thats kind of like naming your boat High Times though. Sort of a Coast Guard red flag for what is this guy up to? I think the best hailing port I ever saw was simply, Earth. That gives you a bit of latitude. Longitude too for that matter. If you are documenting, letter size does matter. I think the MIN is 4". Raven now has a proper name and hailing port on her transom and Noak is a very nice place to sail from, Steve.

Duncan Maio · Post by **Duncan Maio** » Oct 4th, '06, 07:37

I don't know this firsthand, as Remedy did not require fancy financing (or, happily, any at all) but I believe that when an owner secures a boat loan with a First Preferred Ship's Mortgage, the lender often requires that the vessel be documented with the owner's place of residence as the hailing port. That, and tax reasons related to chartering, may explain some of the less exotic home port designations.

p.s. Melissa: I promise, this winter I will get around to changing the homeport from Boston, MA to Bristol, RI. For the record, we did live in Boston at one time, and kept the boat right downtown.

Al Levesque · Post by **Al Levesque** » Oct 4th, '06, 08:30

I see the rules have changed from the previous. The older rule was that the hailing port had to be either the home of the owner, the port where the boat was docked, or the location of the Coast Guard office where the boat was documented. We see many boats here in Salem that were documented in the Boston office of the Coast Guard. Some fellow boaters expected to move from harbor to harbor depending on mooring or slip availability and sometimes chose their landlocked home or the Boston office instead of their current docking location. The new rules may make for even more interesting variety.

mahalocd36 · Post by **mahalocd36** » Oct 4th, '06, 09:27

Duncan Maio wrote: p.s. Melissa: I promise, this winter I will get around to changing the homeport from Boston, MA to Bristol, RI. For the record, we did live in Boston at one time, and kept the boat right downtown.

LOL - I wasn't talking about you.....

BTW, we are one of those that has an inland place on our transom, our hometown. One reason for doing that is that is where the boat is registered. NH requires state registration even if the boat is documented. (Unlike Maine which told me you don't register it if it's documented).
Also we weren't sure, when we got Mahalo, where we were going to keep the boat. So our hometown was the only place that made sense.

To make things really confusing - there used to be a boat in Mattapoisett named Mattapoisett (with a hailing port of Troy, NY).

Kittiwake · Post by **Kittiwake** » Oct 4th, '06, 09:29

I know of at least one boat that has home port of Danger Island, a small, unnamed island in FL that is invaded one weekend a year by a local sailing club. They have never been questioned by USCG, or by bridge tenders along the waterway.

If the boat is also registered in a state (sales tax paid, registered, property taxes paid if applicable), there may be an issue if home port is not in that state? I don't know for sure

Peace and Fair Winds, Bill

Bill Michne · Post by **Bill Michne** » Oct 4th, '06, 20:39

This may have been said already, but if the vessel is not documented there are no rules for what you put on it as a hailing port.

If it is documented, however, the USCG rules are simple and explicit. It must be a place in the US, and the name must be displayed on the vessel in letters at least 3 inches high.

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Oct 5th, '06, 06:36

When I bought this boat I thought about what to put as hailing port for awhile. As I bought this boat with the intension of taking off cruising right away I didnt really see any signifigance to putting the home port as annapolis (where I bought it and where my last boats home port was), as since I had no intension of returning there I didnt see anything "home" about it. I ended up putting the home port as Great Falls, VA which is where I grew up and I still have fond memories of and in my heart will always be "home". It is on the potomac river, but it is not navigable at all, as the name suggests there some pretty big waterfalls there. I have no issue with my home port being a place my boat cant actually go or have ever been. I have seen lots of similar hailing ports in the caribbean, people who were from inland landlocked places who bought boats on the coast to go cruising, they put their home on it, rather then the port they simply bought the boat in.

Put whatever you want down (within the rules).

Neil Gordon · Post by **Neil Gordon** » Oct 5th, '06, 06:48

White Star had this ship some years ago that, in fact, never visited its home port of Liverpool. Read into that what you may

Jim Davis · Post by **Jim Davis** » Oct 5th, '06, 19:26

Nor do most of the US owned corporate, and super rich citizens yachts. Note 90+% are flagged anywhere but the US. That said their tenders, cigarette type boats are all from Delaware.

bill2 · Post by **bill2** » Oct 5th, '06, 23:53

Neil

I guess you iced this question

Bill(2)

The Cape Dory Board

home port?

home port?

A place in the United States....

Found the official wording.....

Am I too much of a traditionalist?

Re: Am I too much of a traditionalist?

Hailing ports

Documentation and Mortgages

Changed rules

Re: Documentation and Mortgages

Danger Island

Documented or not

Just for general info...

FWIW

homeport