I bought and registered Prindle 16 catamaran in 88. It was in storage from '89 to '92, then again from '93 to 99 when I retired from active duty. Sometime between '93 and '99, TPWD decided that 16ft sailboats needed hull numbers. So, fast forward to '99; here I go with my 1988 registration document to get the number, and Parks & Wildlife accuse me of having stolen the boat, and they weren't nice. Of course, they had the benefit of a 3inch thick sheet of glass to hide behind as they categorically deny my ownership, deny that the form was theirs, denied that it was in their computer system, and demanded that I now pay $142 for a lost title search. Of course, they did seem to have the address of the original owner, which they gave because I would have to get a notarized titled from him (again). A real kicker was when I questioned why the original title (boat and trailer) was only $7.00, and a new one was going to cost $50 for the boat and an additional $14 for the trailer from DPS. The staff got all bent out of shape on that.
The fun and games didn't stop there. I called the state office instead of trying to talk to a snobbish bureaucrat in a satellite office. Initially, I got an intern who delivered the state's propaganda. Next, I got hold of her supervisor who seemed to think the only way out of the dilemma was to go through the courts. During this time, his supervisor broke into the conversation and threatened to send the state police to my residence to confiscate the boat if I didn't pay the new fees. His justification for all the new fees? He told me that "The state owns the waters, not the people....."
Bad thing to say to a recently retired military person.
I sort of popped my own cork and threatened to disassemble the boat and sell it as parts, and the hulls in the median of the local highway where DPS would pick them up and trace them back to the original owner who would tell them that he sold the boat 11 years before.
............Moment of Silence; You could hear the pin drop........................................then the proverbial, "You don't want to do that",.........
followed by, "Yes, I do, and you won't be able to prove a thing".
We were at an impasse. They calmed down a bit. We finally agreed that they would contact the PO and tell him that I was on my way with a "new" title in his name that would need to be notarized, and afterwards, they would expedite the processing of the change or registration.
That one incident left such a bad taste in my mouth that I only sailed the Prindle once since that time. She has sat on a trailer, sans registration number on her hulls since then. I have also aged and am no longer capable of sailing a boat requiring acrobatics and beach cats are not as popular as they once were.
I bought "Mistress" in Nov of 2015, and this time, I was well versed in the regulations of TPWD to the point of bringing copies of their web page to make my point. Yes, they tried their bureaucratic nonsense, and even had the station captain standing there glaring at me, but they found it hard to argue with their own posted regs. The hard part was the simple fact that "Mistress" had originally come from New Mexico. The PO registered her in Texas, but never registered the motor that was purchased in NM, in Texas. I had a good bill of sale from the PO who now lived in Colorado, but the motor wasn't in the all knowing Texas data base (NM doesn't register OB motors).
That gave 3 choices, 1.I do as the PO did and happily sail without registering the motor, 2. I could write the motor off as a loss, and since Mistress with motor and trailer were real cheap, it wasn't much of a loss, or 3. TPWD could concede and register the motor and make some money.
They chose door #3, and I went on my happy way.
The moral of the story(ies):
1. If you walk into an office and the bureaucrat is behind 3 inches of glass, be prepared for a hard time with, and threats from a very obnoxious individual.
2. Bureaucrats are only there to bring revenue for the state, they are not there to help you.
3. Have all your documents in order, and be well versed in their regs.
To make a long story short, bureaucrats mess up everything that is fun for the sake of a dollar and a silly piece of paper, and a plastic card, and a number.
You should keep that! It's a bona-fide antique, a museum piece, especially if it has a 25kbs modem!Tomfoolery wrote: My machine only has a 286 processor and dial-up, so it's hard to watch videos on it.
