The United States Coast Guard (USCG) recently announced plans to issue Temporary Certificates of Documentation (COD) for recreational vessels in order to address the more than 4 month backlog for applications. Temporary Certificates of Documentation will allow recreational boat owners to legally operate their vessels pending paperwork processing. While it is in effect, the recreational vessel subject to this temporary COD shall be deemed to be a documented vessel of the United States, subject to all of the rights and responsibilities applicable by law to documented vessels and to Certificates of Documentation. Vessel owners must keep proof of the temporary certificate of documentation on board at all times.

Recently the National Marine Manufacturers of America (NMMA) submitted comments supporting a proposed USCG rule implementing a documentation renewal fee to help ease the limited resources resulting from the backlog. Read more on NMMA’s comments to the renewal fee.

NMMA is hopeful the issuance of temporary certificates of documentation will improve the process while allowing boat owners the ability to operate, particularly in the boating season, pending completion of documentation. This will also immediately benefit boaters, pending finalization of the documentation renewal fee rulemaking. For more information on the requirements of temporary documentation, see USCG announcement here. For more information, please contact Nicole Vasilaros at nvasilaros@nmma.org or +1 202 737 9763.