Registration Sticker on Wood Boat

For those who have strip or sng boats and live in states which require stickers. How do you attach them? I’m planning on waiting another month before I sand down the epoxy and varnish the boat, so sticking it on is out of the question. Plus, a three year sticker stuck on the boat would kind of commit me to a three-year cycle of revarnishing. Right now I’ve got it securely taped inside the boat secure in a plastic ziploc bag. But its supposed to be on the outside.

Stickers
I’ve had to put a “Property owners” sticker on my S&G kayak. Had to be put on the stern, left side. It was self adhesive, so all I did was lightly sand where I put it.



I sand and revarnish my boat twice a year, spring and fall. Always looks so good after the varnishing. Each year I just put the new sticker over the old. Someday I’ll remove them all. I don’t tend to paddle on the small lakes within the property anymore and have not renewed the boat this year.



Andy

You could…
use a piece of clear plastic and some small brass wood screws to put the registration on. That way it could be removed. I had a boat that I did this to and it worked very well.

Even the nastiness of Ohio…
…gives leeway in where it’s put.


Ohio - -
They are kinda specific in where it goes.



Once it’s on, don’t try to remove it, It will show VOID when you do.

just slap it on there
I’ve been putting MN stickers on the varnished surface for decades. They are messy to peel off when they expire, but I scape and rasp and get it done. Sand and re-varnish the little patch, let it cure well and put the new one on.



By the way. Did you get a HIN(hull identification number) for your canoe? How did you put that on?

The instructions I got…
…with my “little sticker” clearly indicates you

can put it inside the cockpit.



I don’t because I feel that just invites problems from ODNR who would much prefer

checking kayaks on the shore for stickers

than stop 12 year olds on jet skiis from ripping

through no wake zones.



http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/watercraft/reg/hpoption.htm

The way I read the instructions

– Last Updated: Jul-22-06 2:41 PM EST –

putting it inside is only okay in an open boat like a wherry or canoe, where it is clearly visible to someone viewing it on the port side. Not the case if you actually are in the boat. For the time being I've got it in a ziploc baggie, and taped it to the inside with packing tape. But I think that's technically not legal. Most of the watercraft people I run into are pretty reasonable, and I think they'd accept my explanation that I'm just a few weeks away from sanding and varnishing it. There's ONE guy who hangs out at ONE particular spot who seems to take his job WAY too seriously, but the others I have encountered have been fine.

I haven’t put it on yet.
But I aksed that question awhile back. And one easy suggestion was to print in on white paper then epoxy the paper somehwere on the inside (or two places–one visible, one hidden in case it is stolen). Supposedly, they white paper becomes almost invisible once saturated with epoxy, much like the glass does.

Registration sticker required?
Here in California, where they seem to have rules for and a tax on everything, registration and stickers aren’t required for kayaks.

Required here.
And the office bureacrats can be a PITA (moreso than the people in the field. A friend recently bought an Old Town Otter at a Big Box store, and went to get it registered. If you are willing to stick huge registration numbers on the side of your boat, you can do it locally, otherwise you have to do it by mail or in person in Columbus. Her boat apparently was missing a digit in its HIN, and it took them three weeks to get back to her, rejecting her request for a registration. They told her the boat was “illegal” because it was missing this number, and she had to take this perfectly good boat back to the store and exchange it for another one. Who knows what happens to the boat–will Old Town have to melt it down? It seems scratching an extra digit onto it wasn’t a legal option.

Bother state legislators endlessly
until they repeal the law. Those of us who live in states without a canoe/kayak registration law can testify that conditions are actually BETTER. Just show me a state with a canoe/kayak registration law where paddlers say they are better off.

I saw a guy from Ohio
who had laminated the sticker and attached it to his deck lines. It’s temporary, but gets the job done.

ohio
I put it on a scrape piece of wood. Fasten it on with wire ties to the rear bulkhead straps. Not a chance in hell I’m going to put it on the kayak.

Carfull there - -
If you get the wrong PITA officer, he’ll have you written up in no time. I don’t blame you one bit for not wanting to put it on the boat, but they are nit pickers in Ohio.



Seems if they feel you could potentially use it on another boat, it’s not right



Also - - be advised that once you start to pull the sticker off, the words VOID appear.



Leave it to Ohio to put more technology into a damned sticker than into the real world.

I have also refinished around a sticker
My refinish cycle didn’t match my renewal cycle. I carefully sanded around the sticker and then varnished over it.