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first saltwater boat, bought out of state: insurance, the survey my insurer wanted, and registering it in Alabama

30°41'N 88°03'Wstarted by first_saltwater_boatDec 15, 2025in Buying and auctions6 posts

#1

promised in ray's thread i'd start my own once i figured out the paperwork. i haven't figured it all out, so this is half report, half asking for help.

the boat: 2019 Sea Hunt Ultra 225, single Yamaha F150, 260 hours, aluminum trailer. it was a repo at a lender yard in Pasadena, Texas, about 470 miles from my house in Mobile. i won it on conaway's in October with a sealed bid of 38,200. i grew up fishing off piers and friends' boats on Dauphin Island. i've never owned anything with a motor bigger than a lawnmower.

where i'm stuck:

insurance. my agent bound it as a new policy on the HIN, the listing and a bill of sale, but she wants a survey within 45 days or the hull coverage gets reduced to actual cash value. i've never hired a surveyor.

registration. the envelope that came with the boat has a Texas boat title AND a separate Texas title for the outboard. i didn't know motors got titles. the lien releases from the bank are in there too, notarized. the woman at the county license office looked at both titles and said she'd have to call somebody.

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#2

Destin, so i'm basically your neighbor. on the Texas thing: Texas titles boats and outboards separately, it's one of the few states that does. Alabama doesn't title boats at all, it only registers them. so the Texas titles become your proof of ownership. keep them both in the safe, not on the boat. you'll need them when you sell.

the license office should register it off the Texas boat title and your bill of sale. the trailer gets its own tag. if they still don't know what to do, ask for whoever handles boat registrations, sometimes it's one person.

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#3

on the survey: you want a condition and valuation survey, not a full pre-purchase one. that's what an insurer asks for. look for somebody accredited with SAMS or NAMS near Mobile. most charge by the foot, $18 to $25 is normal, so figure $400 to $550 for a 22 foot boat. on a trailer is fine for an insurance survey unless your agent wants a sea trial too. ask her.

send the surveyor the conaway's listing photos and their condition sheet ahead of time. it saves them time and you'll get a better comparison of what was listed and what's there.

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#4

did you get it surveyed? 45 days from your policy start is going to be around the end of the month if you bound it in mid december.

one piece of advice from someone who wrote service tickets for years: whoever surveys it, ask them to note the engine serial number on the report and check it against the Texas outboard title. if they don't match, you want to know now.

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#5

my insurer did the exact same thing, 30 days for me. the survey cost was worth it just for the baseline. if your hull comes back dry and the motor compression is even, you'll sleep better.

also, keep one folder for everything conaways sent with the boat. the listing, the condition sheet, the titles, the survey. my insurer asked for the listing photos again in january and i found them in two minutes.

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#6

update, and thank you all.

survey done January 22 by a SAMS surveyor out of Daphne, $462. hull dry, compression even on all four cylinders, engine serial matches the Texas outboard title like renee said to check. he noted a cracked bilge pump float switch, $34 to fix. agent got the report the same day and the full coverage stuck. annual premium came out to $1,140 with the survey.

registration: back at the county license office with the Texas titles, the bank's lien releases, and the bill of sale from Conaway's Auto Sales. the second person i talked to knew exactly what to do. Alabama registration number, decals, and a trailer tag. $86.50 total for both. the Texas titles are in my safe deposit box.

first trip is going to be inside Mobile Bay as soon as there's a 65 degree day. not going offshore until i've put 20 hours on it close to home. i read the 21 foot thread too.

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