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On Wed, Mar 07, 2007 at 08:04:53AM -0500, Norm of Bandersnatch wrote:
> Every cop that has invaded my vessel, and some who just pass by, has
> demanded to see the "registration" which is state issued. This shows you
> have paid the protection racket money and the government knows of your
> existence. This is in addition to the federal document, if any.
The first time I went to get an I-68 (Canadian border boat landing
permit -- basically a customs preclearance for the year) from the DHS
office in the airport in Toronto, I left blank the section for the
state/provincial registration number. Up here in Canada, boats that are
registered with the federal government (like mine is) are not required
to have an provincial documentation (as an interesting aside, title
transfers for provincially registered boats are handled by the revenue
agency, which always remembers to ensure that appropriate sales taxes
are collected when the title is transferred; federally registered boats
however, have their title transfer handled by the transportation
ministry, which almost never notifies the revenue agency that sales
taxes need to be collected. Consequently, there are a lot of pleasure
craft that have been registered federally to facilitate tax evasion).
Needless to say, when I told the poor fellow processing my I-68 that I
didn't have such a number, he was pretty insistent "sure you do, it
should be printed 2" high at the bow of your boat". I then confused him
by trying to explain the nuances of the Canadian law, and this went on
for several minutes as I proposed that I could provide my HIN, which is
the only number printed on the outside of the hull of my vessel (though
it is partially obscured by the transom boarding ladder), my sail number
(being my boat's only number that is visible from a distance -- provided
that I'm under sail), the Official Number (AFAIK, a serial number for my
boat's entry in the Register of Ships, prominently displayed in 1/4"
numerals engraved at the bottom of the brass plaque, also containing the
ship name and tonnage, affixed to the mast support beam), or this
alphanumeric string, containing a space, printed in 4" high characters
at the bow of the boat.
Naturally, he jumped at the last option until I started reading it off
to him: "Charlie Alpha November Delta..."
"no that's your boat name"
"I know, but it's the only consistently visibly displayed identifying
marking on the exterior of my vessel"
Eventually I stepped outside and called a friend who'd recently gotten
an I-68 himself. "Oh yeah, I went throught the same thing. They
completely fail to understand what's going on; I went with my Official
Number because my sail number was too short and they guy could recognize
a HIN as not-what-he wanted."
So I went back in and filled in the space with 370900.
Cheers,
Kris
A.S. Candy Cane
--
Kris Coward http://unripe.melon.org/
GPG Fingerprint: 2BF3 957D 310A FEEC 4733 830E 21A4 05C7 1FEB 12B3
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