By Glen Wunderlich
Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association
For many years I’ve wanted to upgrade my boating/fishing experiences. The reason? My 10-foot jon boat is too small to take along anyone but a small child because of the weight limits defined by the Coast Guard information on the boat. The total weight with equipment and passengers is not to exceed 250 pounds. (Good thing I’ve lost weight in the past few years.) In addition, the boat cannot have any type of motor – electric or gasoline – without getting the craft registered with the State of Michigan. Although I’ve enjoyed the simplicity of rowing, such a watercraft is quite limited as to the waters I can fish.
I’ve pondered getting something a bit larger – at least large enough to take an adult passenger. My innate cheapness has kept me from splurging on a brand new boat, so I scanned the highways for an affordable used one. Not far from home I noticed an apparent candidate in front of a home with a for-sale sign attached. After having driven by several times over the course of a few weeks, I decided to take a close-up look. Fortunately, the gentleman that owned the boat saw me checking it out and in short order we agreed upon a price.
The 12-foot aluminum boat was big enough to meet my needs and came with a trailer on new rubber, Minnkota trolling motor, two anchors, a fish finder and two tired oars, life jackets and even a landing net. I forked over the cash and headed to the nearest Secretary of State with the bill of sale for the requisite documents to make everything legal. This is where the “fun” began.
I was happy to walk right in and was immediately invited to an open window with a rather welcoming gentleman behind the counter. The first question from him was, “Do you have an appointment?” I quickly learned that was the only way anyone would actually handle the mandated registration. Fair enough. Before going that far, I showed him my bill of sale and he said I would need the registration certificate from the previous owner for the tiny trailer, which was part of the package deal. I informed him that the seller did not provide the old registration, so he said I would have to take the trailer to a weigh station for certification. Dang! I made an appointment for the following week with the Secretary of State, which would have given me time to get the trailer weighed. However, I had already taken the trailer to a shop to get new waterproof lights and wiring.
One note of instruction was offered by the state employee: Since the trailer was so lightweight, some scales were such that the weight would not register. He advised that I should put the boat on the trailer, and as long as it weighed less than 2500 pounds (which it did by over a ton), no additional cost would be involved in the registration process. Not sure that I would be able to meet the appointed time, because I couldn’t rely on the shop to do its work in time, I drove back to the Secretary of State to cancel the appointment. I tried to call first, but the telephone system went to a state-controlled number that was too busy to answer my call. The message allowed me to have them return a call to me, rather than to wait for an undetermined amount of time on the phone. Of course, when they returned my call, I missed it. That’s why I made the trip back to their office out of courtesy to cancel the appointment.
I didn’t relish the notion of hauling the tiny boat and trailer to a weigh station and having to pay another stinkin’ fee, so I made another trip to the seller to see if he could provide me with the old trailer registration. Fortunately, he was able to locate it within a few minutes and gave it to me. Yay! I went back to the Secretary of State and made another appointment.
At the appointed time of 9am, the door was unlocked and the same gentleman took a cursory look at my papers and sent me to another man’s window, where I was promptly served. This guy had the people skills of a baseball bat, but what the heck. Let’s get on with it, I conceded.
Right off, we had an issue with the trailer. The seller informed me that the boat and trailer had belonged to his brother, who had passed away. The employee notified me, that although the trailer and boat were a package deal, I needed a vehicle identification number and value for the trailer. All this for a trailer that weighed no more than 100 pounds and was probably as old as the 55 year-old boat. He wanted me to “assign” a value on the trailer in addition to the $600 I paid for the package deal. My retort was fine: Let’s make it one dollar. Not good enough, he said. Okay, $50, which was $50 more than I paid for the deal. At least he went along with that concoction and the state would be able to squeeze more fees out of me. But, he wanted that VIN! I told him there wasn’t one anywhere on the trailer, so he made one up to get through the process and told me I had to put the new number permanently on the trailer. I did just that with a piece of copper tubing that I smashed into a small plate and etched the number onto it with a carbide bit and a Dremmel and secured it to the trailer with some epoxy.
While there, I asked to register the old jon boat referenced above and after jumping through more red-tape hoops, I had to sign a statement indicating who I bought the $80 boat from 35 years ago.
When I asked him if the Secretary of State provided the MC numbers, which are required to be affixed to the boats, he said they didn’t do that. He directed me to either Walmart or Dunham Sporting Goods instead. In the pouring rain, I went directly to Walmart where I finally found someone who found someone else that looked at me like I was crazy. About this time I was close to fitting that description, after learning they didn’t know how to respond except to advise me to go back to the Secretary of State. That certainly was out of the question, so I headed to the nearby Dunham’s store, where someone got someone else to tell me they didn’t know a thing about those MC numbers.
Soaking wet, I headed to the shop and picked up my newly wired trailer and headed home.
Fortunately, I found an online service that could provide the official decals, although I’d have to wait a week or so to get them at a cost of $17 for each boat. They should be here any day now.
This is the same government that made it illegal to go fishing in one’s boat during the Covid 19 nightmare, if the boat had a motor. Even a little electric trolling motor!
Maybe I should have been happy with my rowboat after all.
Planning to be on the water this fall? Be on the lookout for Michigan Department of Natural Resources personnel conducting nighttime walleye recruitment surveys from late September to mid-October.
