Due to the lapse in federal funding, the Coast Guard's National Vessel Documentation Center (NVDC) is not able to process commercial vessel documentation.

On its website, the NVDC says:

NOTICE: DUE TO THE LAPSE IN FEDERAL FUNDING, INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE MAY NOT BE UP TO DATE. TRANSACTIONS SUBMITTED VIA THIS WEBSITE MIGHT NOT BE PROCESSED AND WE CANNOT GUARANTEE A RESPONSE TO INQUIRIES UNTIL AFTER APPROPRIATIONS ARE ENACTED.

The NVDC is closed to the public until further notice. Phone service and customer walk-in service is suspended. Applications may continue to be e-mailed, faxed or mailed to the facility. Applications for commercial documentation will be processed when operations resume.

Applications for recreational documentation will continue to be processed on a first-in, first-out basis.  Recreational vessel owners who need to contact the NVDC may do so by sending an e-mail to: [email protected]

David Krapf has been editor of WorkBoat, the nation’s leading trade magazine for the inland and coastal waterways industry, since 1999. He is responsible for overseeing the editorial direction of the publication. Krapf has been in the publishing industry since 1987, beginning as a reporter and editor with daily and weekly newspapers in the Houston area. He also was the editor of a transportation industry daily in New Orleans before joining WorkBoat as a contributing editor in 1992. He has been covering the transportation industry since 1989, and has a degree in business administration from the State University of New York at Oswego, and also studied journalism at the University of Houston.