Coast Guard or Nationally Registered

[dlochner]

All states have that it's called the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and it protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. What is "reasonable" may be debated but without probable cause your person, home, car, boat cannot be searched.

What laws exist and what laws are enforced are two separate questions. It is a very minor inconvenience and expense to register a dinghy with the state. It one less thing that local authorities can bother you about. Besides, labeling your dinghy "Tender to" advertises that no one is likely aboard your boat when the dinghy is tied to the dock.

As for the Fourth Amendment, writing a ticket for an unregistered dinghy is hardly a violation of the unreasonable search and seizure. The registration numbers must be displayed and visible.

Also, the Fourth Amendment does not apply to the CG. They have the right to board and inspect any vessel within the territorial waters of the US and they have right to board and inspect any US flagged vessel any where in the world.

 

[Rick Webb]

What laws exist and what laws are enforced are two separate questions. It is a very minor inconvenience and expense to register a dinghy with the state. It one less thing that local authorities can bother you about. Besides, labeling your dinghy "Tender to" advertises that no one is likely aboard your boat when the dinghy is tied to the dock.

As for the Fourth Amendment, writing a ticket for an unregistered dinghy is hardly a violation of the unreasonable search and seizure. The registration numbers must be displayed and visible.

Also, the Fourth Amendment does not apply to the CG. They have the right to board and inspect any vessel within the territorial waters of the US and they have right to board and inspect any US flagged vessel any where in the world.

A bit of a hair split but the Fourth Amendment does apply to the Coast Guard. The First Congress (the same bunch of guys who gave us the Fourth Amendment) approved the Revenue Service Act creating the Revenue Service one of the fore runners of the Coast Guard giving them power to enforce tariffs and board US vessel anywhere or any vessel in the US. Using that same power to do boardings for Safety Checks is a bit of an obfuscation but the Supreme Court has made it settled law. Typically, a Coastie to do a Safety Check will ask to see the items from alongside if it can be done safely. The part of conversation I was referring to however was about State and Local Law Enforcement boarding your vessel.

BTW your boat not displaying proper a registration gets you started down the track of Probable Cause to be boarded.

 

[Tom J]

Regardless of what they say, we cruised for over 40 years in RI/MA/NH/ME/NY with my unregistered outboard dinghy marked as "Tender to" and I was never stopped, not once. We would tie up to dinghy docks and I would glance at dinghys with numbers and stickers, and those without. The count generally ran about 50% at the most.
Just sayin'

My experience also. When I relocated my sailboat from FL to MA, its took me a few years to get around to registering the dingy in MA, and no one bothered me about it. For peace of mind, though, I finally made it to one of the few registries in MA that handles boast registrations.

 

[dlochner]

A bit of a hair split but the Fourth Amendment does apply to the Coast Guard. The First Congress (the same bunch of guys who gave us the Fourth Amendment) approved the Revenue Service Act creating the Revenue Service one of the fore runners of the Coast Guard giving them power to enforce tariffs and board US vessel anywhere or any vessel in the US. Using that same power to do boardings for Safety Checks is a bit of an obfuscation but the Supreme Court has made it settled law. Typically, a Coastie to do a Safety Check will ask to see the items from alongside if it can be done safely. The part of conversation I was referring to however was about State and Local Law Enforcement boarding your vessel.

BTW your boat not displaying proper a registration gets you started down the track of Probable Cause to be boarded.

Here's another view of CG boarding and the Fourth Amendment.

The Fourth Amendment Rights vs. Boarding Power of the United States Coast Guard - MBLB

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched...

mblb.com