or, “Why I have sympathy for Libertarians”
or, “Why people look at me like I’m bat shit crazy when I talk about a motor on a canoe (because they’ve never seen such a thing)” [1]

So I talked to someone from the DOL via Email:

Q: “I purchased a used 16′ aluminum canoe with a square back motor mount. Do I need to register it? If I put a motor on it (up to 5hp) do I need to register it? Should I scrape off the old registration from MN?”

A: “If you put any size of a motor on the canoe, and use it on federal waters, yes you must register the canoe. If you are not going to put a motor on the canoe, yes you would need to scrape off the registration numbers from MN.”

Q: “Do I need a title or a bill of sale from the former owner to register it? ”

A:”In order to register it you will need a bill of sale and release of interest from the previous owner.”

Attempt #1, I go to a Licensing Agency, which are Washington’s outsourced Department of Licensing. I have a bill of sale, although these types of places have their own way of doing things so I just offer that. They want a Hull Identification Number (HIN). I try to explain that it’s a canoe, let alone one from 1983, and it doesn’t have a HIN. Aghast by this, she says I’ll have to come back on a weekday when they can ‘Call Olympia’.

Attempt #2, I go directly to the DOL at a King County building. They don’t care about the HIN, but the Release of Interest has to be notarized. Seriously. Notarized. For a canoe with a 3hp motor, NOTARIES MUST GET INVOLVED. Upon hearing that it was previously registered in MN, the attendant goes and finds a book about titles, and is surprised she can’t find canoe titles in MN. Yeah, I don’t think we had canoe titles in Maine either, thanks for playing.

I don’t know what’s next. Maybe I just won’t register and I’ll pay fines whenever I get them. That probably would cost less than notaries, all this driving around and time. Maybe I’ll go back to place #1 with an etching of the VIN from my truck and tell them I must have been blind and I found it.

[1]

16:13 < chronomex> btm: you have to register canoes?
16:15 <@btm> chronomex: if you put a motor on one.
16:16 < chronomex> oh. that sounds like something you’d do

Update:

I emailed DOL Saturday about the lack of a HIN and just got a response:

Q: “I went to register it today and they wouldn’t without a HIN. I don’t know if new canoes have HINs now, but none of the canoes I’ve ever had did.”

A: “Any vessel that is powered by human power regardless of it’s size, is not required to be registered in Washington. If you put a motor of 10 HP or less and it’s not used on federal waters, it still doesn’t need to be registered. If you use the canoe on federal waters with any size of a motor, then it must be registered. If there is no HIN number, then the system will assign it a HIN number. To determine what waters are federal, please go to this website.”

I couldn’t find a list of federal waters on that site. I found a list of “navigable waters” that said it isn’t an exclusive list of federal waters but I figure I can assume it is inclusive. There’s only 21 active Coast Guard people in Station Seattle, maybe I’ll just not register it and if the federal government wants to arrest me for my high speed terrorist canoe, they can go ahead.