A bill of sale records the deal. It is not the title.
People search "boat bill of sale" and "boat title transfer" as if they were the same errand. They are not. The bill of sale says who sold the boat, who bought it, and for how much. The title, in a state that issues one, is the ownership record the state keeps. The registration is the number and the decal that let you use the boat on that state's waters.
There is no federal form that every state will take for an ordinary recreational boat. Texas says a signed bill of sale or invoice is required on every transfer, and it tells you what counts. Florida tells you exactly what a bill of sale has to say if you are using the 30 days after purchase. Another state may hand you its own application and treat that application as the bill of sale. Start with the state that will file the boat, not with a blank PDF from a random website.
The ten state pages on this site are Florida, Texas, California, New York, Michigan, North Carolina, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and Maine. Each one links the agency and repeats only the fees that agency or statute actually printed. The boat registration index is the list.
Title, registration, and documentation are three different papers
Keep the words straight before you hand anyone money. Mixing them up is how a buyer drives home with a receipt and no way to register the boat.
| Paper | What it is | Who issues it |
|---|---|---|
| Bill of sale | The sale: parties, boat, price, date | Seller and buyer. The state or the Coast Guard says what it must contain. |
| Title | The ownership record, including liens, in states that title boats | The state titling office. Not every state titles boats. |
| Registration | The number on the bow and the decal, so you can use the boat there | The state registration agency. Length, horsepower, or year rules differ. |
| Certificate of documentation | A federal record of the vessel | U.S. Coast Guard National Vessel Documentation Center |
A state can require one, two, or all three of the state-side steps. California DMV says a documented boat does not get a state registration. Texas Parks and Wildlife says a documented boat generally does. New York DMV does not title a documented boat. Do not export one state's rule to the next state over.
Maine is the example I keep nearby. The Maine registration page summarizes Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's registration fees, which are based on horsepower. That IF&W page does not describe a Maine boat title. If someone emails you a "Maine title," ask the department before you treat it as a thing the state issues.
Documented boats use Coast Guard form CG-1340
If the boat has a Coast Guard certificate of documentation, or you are documenting it, the bill of sale is the Coast Guard's form CG-1340. The NVDC forms page is the index. The form itself is a bill of sale for a vessel that is documented, will be documented, or has been documented. It asks for the vessel name, the official number or hull identification number, the sellers, the buyers, the interest being transferred, and the kind of ownership.
The acknowledgment block is completed by a notary, or another official authorized to take an oath. The March 2025 initial-documentation instructions say the same thing in plainer language: the bill of sale is signed by or for every person transferring an interest, and the seller's signature has to be acknowledged by a notary. An altered form can be rejected.
Those same instructions list an initial documentation application fee of $133 for a recreational or commercial certificate with a one-year expiration, and $8 per page to file a bill of sale. Read the current instruction sheet before you send a check. Fees on a printout from last year are how people underpay and wait.
Documentation is not a shortcut around a state you still have to deal with. Some states still want a registration or a fee from a documented boat. Some do not title a documented boat at all. The state page, and the Coast Guard page, are both required reading. Neither one replaces the other.
What to write down, using Florida and Texas as the examples
I am not going to invent a universal blank. Two official lists are enough to show why a napkin receipt fails.
Florida Statutes section 328.46 says a vessel that has to be registered must be registered within 30 days after purchase. During those 30 days the operator has to carry a bill of sale, and that bill of sale is the temporary certificate of number. It has to include:
- Make, length, and type of propulsion.
- Hull identification number.
- A statement that Florida is where the vessel is principally used.
- Purchaser's name, address, ZIP code, and signature.
- Seller's name and signature.
- Date of sale, which is also the date the temporary authority starts.
- A notice that the temporary authority to use the boat on Florida waters ends 30 days after the sale.
FLHSMV also says an executed bill of sale is one way to prove ownership when you register, and that if the vessel has to be titled, the title comes first. File with the county tax collector. The Florida registration page has the statutory certificate fees and the title fees FLHSMV prints, and it says where this summary stopped.
Texas is stricter about the price. TPWD requires a signed bill of sale or invoice on every transfer of a boat or outboard motor. A completed application PWD 143 or 144 can be that bill of sale if the price, the date, and any trade-in are filled in and the seller signs. A handwritten receipt has to show the date, the price not including the trailer, the make, serial number, and model year, the purchaser's name, and the seller's signature. The back of a current brown Texas title can also carry the price and the buyer's name. The trailer is a separate trip to the county tax office. Sales tax is 6.25 percent and is due within 45 working days. The Texas registration page has the two-year fee classes.
Copy the hull identification number off the boat, not off the ad. It is usually on the starboard side of the transom. If the number on the hull and the number on the title differ, you do not have a paperwork problem you can solve with a nicer font. You have the wrong boat, or a boat with a story.
A short transfer checklist
The blank boat bill of sale and the transfer checklist at the top of this page are free samples you can print. They are not a filing, and the state's form wins wherever it disagrees.
This is the order I would use.
- Find the HIN on the hull and on every ownership paper. Photograph both.
- Ask whether the boat is state-titled, state-registered only, or Coast Guard documented. The answer changes the form.
- Ask about liens. A title with a lender's name on it is not a clean sale until that lender releases it.
- Separate the trailer. In Texas and Wisconsin the trailer is a motor-vehicle filing, not part of the boat registration. Do not assume the other states work that way. Read their pages.
- Write the price you actually paid. Understating it to shrink the tax is a bad plan and, where the state collects tax, it is their penalty schedule, not yours to invent.
- Sign in the capacity you actually have. An heir, a broker, or one co-owner may not be able to sign for everyone. CG-1340 asks for that capacity on purpose.
- File before the state's deadline. Florida's clock in section 328.46 is 30 days. Texas tax is due within 45 working days. Other states print their own. The state registration pages point at those offices.
If you are selling and the buyer wants a sea trial, decide in advance whose insurance covers the hour underway, and do not find out by having a conversation after someone hits a piling. That is a conversation for your insurer, not a sentence I can finish for you.
Where the ten state pages send you
Each page is a reading of that state's own chart. If a fee, a sales-tax rate, or a documentation rule was not on the page I could verify, the state article says so instead of guessing.
- Florida: county tax collector, length classes in section 328.72, and the 30-day bill of sale.
- Texas: Parks and Wildlife, two-year registration, title transfer, and a bill of sale on every sale.
- California: DMV for undocumented boats. A documented boat is not registered with DMV.
- New York: three-year registration. Titles start at model year 1987 and 14 feet. Documented boats are not titled.
- Michigan: Secretary of State. Titles at 20 feet, or any length with an inboard. Three years, expiring March 31.
- North Carolina: Wildlife Resources Commission form VL-1. Printed fees can differ from the online total.
- Minnesota: DNR, three calendar years. The page flags two different transfer amounts that both appear on the DNR site.
- Wisconsin: DNR, three years expiring March 31. Titles for most boats 16 feet and up, not for documented boats.
- Massachusetts: Environmental Police, two-year fees, and a title on boats 14 feet and over.
- Maine: Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, fees by horsepower, excise tax at the town. No state title was found on that page.
Other states are not up here yet. If your boat lives in a state that is missing, use that state's boating agency directly. Do not stretch a Florida statute or a Texas form across a border.
The sea trial is a weather day, not just a signature day
The last mistake is treating the demo ride as paperwork that happens to float. Pick the water and read the forecast for the whole route, not the parking lot. The National Weather Service marine page is the official product. Around here I would open the Buzzards Bay marine forecast and the harbor briefing for Cape Cod Canal if that were the route. Your boat gets the same treatment wherever it is: open the state harbor list, then the cove you will actually use.
A bill of sale does not change what 20 knots feels like on a 17-foot boat. If you are still setting the limits you will use on the ride, how much wind is too much is the longer version. Boat or Nope's harbor page turns the forecast and those limits into a Go, Caution, or Nope, with the reason written out.
Selling at the end of the season has a second checklist. The Northeast winterizing guide is the haul-out side of that calendar. It is not a title guide. Winter layup and a change of owner are two projects that often land in the same week, and they should not share a single scrap of paper.
When the names are straight and the forecast is the one you already decided you can live with, the iPhone app keeps the boat's limits for the next trip. The transfer itself still happens at the state office or the Coast Guard, not in the app.