Is it where you are from or the Boat?
 

When lettering your boats name on back with your intuitive crafty name.. whats the best practice for stating the name of the town of a boat on a lake?
Is it where the boat is moored or where the owner lives?:confused:

Well
 

Usually it is where the boat makes Berth. That is the norm, but it is the captains decision.

We were going to put "Gilford" on our boat, as that is where it is docked at the lake, but the sign guy convinced us to put where we are from on it instead. He pointed out that we'd probably be the only boat on the lake with "Seattle" as its port name! So, that's the city name our boat proudly bears.

- Frank

Well it's usually called your home port so I think it means where the boat calls home. But I've seen both and occasionally an obvious fun choice.

If your boat is documented, it has to have a home port and it has to be a real place, but again I don't think the USCG cares which place you use.

I skipped the homeport, on this boat. My Dad had Nashua, NH in big letters on his boat that call several lake marinas home during it's existence.

My home port
 

I live in a seaside maine town known to all who have seen a northeast ocean chart, I used my home as the home port on my boat. On the lake their are many from Alton Bay, but only a few from my home town, I thought it makes the boat stand out a little and start a few conversations. The USCG regs are very flexiable.

Documented vessel vs registered vessel
 

If you own a documented vessel, then the home port is the port on your documentation papers. There are only a few such vessels on Lake Winnipesaukee and if you don't know what I'm talking about then you don't own one.

If you have a registered vessel (like most of us) you can pretty much put whatever you want as your port since it has no legal bearing on your registration.

Mine is documented. You can still declare most any port as a home port provided you have a reasonable basis, but the papers do need to agree with what goes on the boat.

Boat documentation explained
 

For WAM 290 - go to 'google' and type in "documented vessel" and you will get all the answers you ever will need.

FYI ... might want to be careful when putting a town on the lake, just in case you ever move the boat off a lake and into the ocean

If that's not a concern, than I would put the town where the boat is sliped

Name
 

I think I am the only Buckeye, AZ on the lake!

IIRC when my boats were documented it was supposed to be either the location you were a resident of, the location where the vessel was moored or the location of the nearest USCG district. Therefore mine was documented with a hailing port of Boston (1st CG Dist), even though I lived in Weston and docked in Squantum/Quincy. Seems things are easier now.