We recently purchased a yacht with Vic registration. The yacht will remain in Victoria until December.

We went to Service NSW Hornsby and sat in queue only to be advised we could not register the yacht without a HIN Certificate.

Tail between our legs we went off to obtain the HIN Certificate.

Vic Roads does not use HIN so upon checking around I was unable to find a local agent to provide the HIN Certificate and I was not going to fly an agent there to provide one.

Made a call to Transport NSW. Dillon put me thru to Nicola who put me thru to Martha (at HO). Martha had to seek help of a forth person and told me she would call me back in 90 minutes.

At exactly 90 minutes Martha phoned back to advise I would need to transfer Rego in Vic and then register within 90 days of arriving in NSW.

Ok so this seemed simple enough. However it was not to be.

We dutifully posted off the transfer paperwork to VIC Roads.

Three weeks past and nothing so I honed Vic Roads. Oh dear, Vic Roads checked the rego number and there had been no recent activity. The paperwork (along with my cheque) had not arrived (lost in the post).

Vic Roads told me it would have been simpler to go in and do it. When I explained I was in Sydney she then ran thru our requirement .

The outcome is that we cannot transfer the rego because we don't have a customer number or Vic Licence.

This is evidence of how inflexible our bureaucracy is. OMG!!!

So we sit in Limbo.

FYI - the yacht is still registered (to the previous owner).

I feel your pain, had exactly the same experience in Qld back in 2017. I eventually did what you've done and waited till I brought her to Sydney before transferring the rego to NSW.

Please note that any state registration in Australia does NOT prove ownership. Only Australian registration through AMSA will prove ownership, which is unnecessary if not heading overseas.
State registration is only a state tax, usually going to general revenue, not into boating services.
My suggestion is to not worry about registration at all until the vessel has been in NSW for three months.
Cheers

I think in NSW the state rego works the same as car rego as far as ownership goes.

Select to expand quote

Oceannomad said..
Please note that any state registration in Australia does NOT prove ownership. Only Australian registration through AMSA will prove ownership, which is unnecessary if not heading overseas.
State registration is only a state tax, usually going to general revenue, not into boating services.
My suggestion is to not worry about registration at all until the vessel has been in NSW for three months.
Cheers

Not sure if you can get a mooring without a NSW registered boat.

I went through a similar rigmarole 20 years ago when building my catamaran.

I needed a mooring for when it was launched, but I couldn't get a mooring without registration. I couldn't get rego without a HIN/ Boatcode plaque and I couldn't get that without a valid bill of sale.

I approached a few HIN agents who all wanted a bill of sale, and I tried to explain without success that I only had invoices for drums of epoxy and sheets of foam.

I finally found one who could think for themselves a bit, realised the conundrum I was in and he gave me the code...

Yeah in Williamstown Vic you need proof of ownership to get on a waiting list for a mooring.

I made a dinghy once, and decided to put a motor on it, so it had to be registered.
How to prove ownership, how I got it?
Just wrote out a Stat Dec with details of the boat, construction method, etc. so it was obvious that it didn't come by way of sale, and was a new construction.
It worked and I enjoyed legally having a motor on it for a few years.

I put an out board on a trailer sailer which caused it to be registered, I went to a boat shop asked about the hin and they asked was how long I wanted the boat to be ? ( rego increases with length )