Vessel Documentation Services News

The U.S. Coast Guard's final rule on vessel documentation renewal fees was published in the Federal Register Tuesday. The Coast Guard is amending its regulations to separately list an annual fee for renewals of endorsements upon the Certificate of Documentation. The Coast Guard is required to establish user fees for services related to the documentation of vessels. This final rule separately lists a fee of $26 to cover the current costs of the vessel documentation services provided by the Coast Guard.

As discussed in a recent article, the USCG is now talking openly about centralizing the nationwide administration of the licensing and certification of seamen and officers into one location (the actual examinations will be "privatized"). They speak of the success they have had performing this feat for the vessel documentation offices and now want to repeat if for the licensing system. Obviously, they have forgotten the problems that occurred with the centralization of vessel documentation and for reasons of their own are reluctant to admit they will probably have serious problems with this new venture because of the different clientele. In 1995, the USCG centralized the vessel documentation process into one office located in Falling Waters, W.V.