Name change

Any idea why someone who has owned a boat for 18 months, and is now selling the boat, would, during the time the boat is listed for sale, change the name of the boat?

The obvious answer is that they want to give the previous name to their next boat.

Occasionally I've seen for sale ads in USA where it states that the name is reserved. But I 'm not sure that would be enforceable. Its obviously better to change the name before the boat is listed for sale.

Now, it could also be that the boat, under its old name, has some history that they would prefer people not to know. If interested in the boat then a bit of questioning, preferably face-to-face so body language/reactions can be assessed, would be warranted.

Insequent said:

The obvious answer is that they want to give the previous name to their next boat.

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That's what occurs to me. Our current and last boat, are named for our daughter. The people we sold the last one to, wanted to keep the name, and hailing port, so we ended up having to name the new one, the II.

Ralsy said:

Any idea why someone who has owned a boat for 18 months, and is now selling the boat, would, during the time the boat is listed for sale, change the name of the boat?

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Not sure. Why? Is that a deal breaker for you?

Some people take that long to do things..my good boating friends waited years..... till they finally painted their hull.

If it's a Registered Vessel (Documented in the US) it should be pretty easy to track it's history and previous owners. Every country has some sort of database of Registered (Documented) vessels.

I seen this done on refurbed hurricane boats and lightning struck boats.
No need for paranoia but checking these things out is wise.

Documented boat name and hailing ports are not required to be unique, and all prior names are still carried on the USCG documentation record. I believe even the certificate of documentation might carry the old name(s)-have to check mine.

warfdog said:

Documented boat name and hailing ports are not required to be unique, and all prior names are still carried on the USCG documentation record. I believe even the certificate of documentation might carry the old name(s)-have to check mine.

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Only true (sort of) in the US.
In the US documented names must be unique to that specific hailing port.
i.e. One cannot have two vessels of the same name with the same hailing port

Thanks for all your thoughts. Not a deal breaker at this point but at least worth some investigation. The broker commented that the owner always wanted to have his boat named with the new name. Can't understand why they finally changed it just whilst they are selling it? Wouldn't you just leave the old name. The boat has been just sitting in a berth at the brokerage not being used. It's not like the owners are still using the boat under the new name. I'll have to do a history check which should tell me who the owners were and when. Have made an offer, of course subject to a survey

boatpoker said:

Only true (sort of) in the US.

In the US documented names must be unique to that specific hailing port.

i.e. One cannot have two vessels of the same name with the same hailing port

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If I recall correctly there are several boats with the same name and hailing port as mine in San Francisco. Just examples...

Sorry don’t mean to be opposed to your knowledge on this but uniqueness does not seem to be required