Northwest Fishing Reports

Well I just bought myself a 14 foot aluminum boat with a trailer in Oregon, and now i'm confused about the registering of the boat and trailer. I live in Seattle, according to my license at least, but I spend the majority of my time as a college student in eastern Oregon. I've done some research but I swear everything I read confuses me more and more.

Here's what I know:
-a trailer carrying less than 1,800lbs in Oregon does not have to be registered, but it does have to be in Washington.
-a boat less than 16ft and with a engine less than 10hp does not need to be registered in WA, but does in Oregon.

So, what I am getting out of this is that i'll have to register my trailer if I plan on taking it back to WA over the summer, but I wont need to register the boat. If the boat is unregistered and I am fishing Oregon waters they make an exemption for an out of stater. Now, I believe that there are a certain amount of days my boat can stay in Oregon before I am not exempt. 60 days I believe, but honestly I could just say "im just at Brownlee Reservoir for this weekend".
Because the boat is registered in Oregon, I'd have to transfer it to Washington. But according to the 16ft 10hp rule its not necessary.. so do I just pull off the license number decals and old Oregon tabs and call it good?

Federal Waters - I have read that in Washington a boat must be registered if it is being used in Federal Waters, which include Lake Washington, Lake Sammamish, Columbia River, and the Snake River. Is what I read true, and does that mean my entire thought process above is wrong?

With the trailer, will the fact that its never been registered make this an issue for me when trying to register it in Washington? I have the title to the boat, but the trailer never had/need one in Oregon.
Also, Ill have to pay a sales/use tax to register the trailer. I paid for the boat and trailer together. How is that going to work, am I going to have to pay sales tax on the combined price of the boat and trailer if I am only going to be registering the trailer?

Thank you for any information you can give me. Being young and still learning how these things work is not a fun process!

http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistrati ... ivate.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also, is this the same process you would use even if transferring the title from OR to WA?

Thanks again. Hopefully I am just making this seem a lot more complicated than it really is

The evil is in the details. Trailer, easy, if you maintain your permanent residence in Seattle, you will want to register and license your trailer here. Quick trip to the State patrol so they can say it's safe and then to the DOL for the license. For the boat, lots of threads about it. The latest is the Baker Lake thread in this forum. No motor, no worry. If you plan on power you can save yourself a lot of trouble by just registering it and paying for tags every year. Don't forget your safety gear.

Bodofish wrote:The evil is in the details. Trailer, easy, if you maintain your permanent residence in Seattle, you will want to register and license your trailer here. Quick trip to the State patrol so they can say it's safe and then to the DOL for the license. For the boat, lots of threads about it. The latest is the Baker Lake thread in this forum. No motor, no worry. If you plan on power you can save yourself a lot of trouble by just registering it and paying for tags every year. Don't forget your safety gear.

I agree just bite the bullet and do every thing thru Washington state, its not worth the hassle of trying the two state trick. And don't forget your Boaters Safety Card, according to game officers I talked with last year that was the number one citation(not having a boater safety card) state wide.

Washington will charge you sales tax for a recent purchase. I bought my North River from the North River dealer in Clackamas, OR in 2005 and I had to pay WA sales tax when I licensed it here. So some evidence of purchase price for both boat and trlr will be needed.

You may be exempt from a boaters safety card if your mtr is under 15HP (or you are real old like me!).

Exemptions
• Your vessel has an engine that is under 15hp.
• Your age group does not yet require a Boater Education Card.
• You were born prior to January 1, 1955.
• You hold a valid U.S. Coast Guard Marine Operator's License.

Don't you just love the differences between states? I am retired Coast Guard and used to field a lot of questions just like this. I agree with the consensus. Register both in Washington and be done with it. Technically boats are to be registered in the state of principal use. But your guess is as good as anyone's here on which is which. Some states say 60 days some say 90. Since your permanent residence is in Seattle, you probably have a Washington Drivers Lic and registration so register it in Washington. The sales tax on a used boat and trailer won't be all that much, not like my Motorhome. The sales tax was several thousand $.

You are right about the Federal VS State business. I have a little 12 foot boat with a 2HP engine. If I use it on waters that are not Federal it doesn't have to be registered. But if I use it on Federal waters it does. To top that American Lake is what is called Joint jurisdiction, Both State and Federal. So the boat has numbers on it.

I agree. get a boater card. I took the test when they first put up their web site and passed it without any prior study or reading the Washington handbook. It's pretty simple stuff. I missed two questions pertaining to Personal watercraft rules unique to Washington. But my answers were true in Virginia where I lived for many years while at Coast Guard HQ. Like I said, don't you love the differences.

Thanks for all the input. I have had my boaters card for a few years now, for when I use my dads real boat. I'm gonna have to do some research and see if Oregon counts my card.
I wish I would have read this in the morning. The first thing I did was called the local sheriffs office out here and they told me that because I pay rent in Oregon and spend the majority of my time out here and will use the boat mostly in Oregon that there is no problem with me registering it here. So I went ahead and did that, luckily I have another 2 to 3 years out here depending on if I want to play football for my redshirt senior year. The good thing is that I got my paper work in line right there and can begin use this weekend rather than wait for mail from WA.
I will still have to register the trailer in WA before I come home for my short summer vacation. It would have probably been easier to just have it all done in Washington, but hey, atleast I can still use my boat!

Thanks again for all the input, I appreciate it!