Intex Mariner with Europe HIN bought in the US

I received from my fiancee as a Xmas gift, an Intex Mariner 4. We got the thing to just screw around on ponds and lakes with every once in a while.

She gave me a trolling motor with it also so I need to register the boat.

I just inflated the thing for the first time today. The Europe HIN number was filled out. The USA HIN was blank. The boat also had the CE marking (another European thing). She bought it on Amazon.com and was shipped to Massachusetts from another USA address. The boat has a HIN of CN-XEE [7 Letters and numbers] 08. The USA HIN just had XEE __________08.

I have a call into Intex but the customer support wasn't sure if I could register it in the USA. She's going to have a manager call me next week.

Is this a matter of Intex (or whoever the vendor she bought the boat on Amazon.com was) accidentally selling a boat intended to be sold in Europe in the USA? Will that be a problem when I try to register the boat?

Re: Intex Mariner with Europe HIN bought in the US

I would guess that if you don't have a certificate of origin and bill of sale, you're going to have trouble. I don't think the fact that it's a foreign HIN number will matter, I could be wrong, but you will probably be given a new HIN to attach to your boat. Your best bet is to go to whoever registers boats in your state and ask them exactly what you need.

Re: Intex Mariner with Europe HIN bought in the US

God.... I see a huge headache in my near future. Serves me right for buying a cheapo boat online I guess. Yeah, it came with no Certificate of Origin either. It was basically the boat and the owner's manual. It was in it's original unopened packaging too. With regards to the Bill of Sale, would my fiancee's Amazon.com order information suffice?

EDIT: For the bill of sale, could I just make one up that says she sold me the boat for $1 since she gave it to me as a gift?

Re: Intex Mariner with Europe HIN bought in the US

Well, every state is different, but...

Your Amazon.com receipt should be just fine. You'll likely have to pay taxes on the boat to register it. Yes, even if you already paid sales tax to the Amazon seller. So I would not forge a bill of sale, especially for $1. That would be very suspicious and they'll call you on it. They see it all the time.

Your biggest problem is going to be the certificate of origin. You may be able to contact Intex and give them the HIN number on the boat and they can probably email you a certificate. They may even have blank certificates on their website that you can fill in the blanks. Some manufacturers actually do this. Just research that a little and call them if you can't find anything. If the Amazon seller is a licensed Intex dealer he may also have them or can get them, but since he didn't give you one to begin with.....

Anyway, good luck. Let us know what you find out.

Re: Intex Mariner with Europe HIN bought in the US

Yeah, they have it on their website, lol. Gotta love INTEX!

http://www.intexcorp.com/enter_mariner4_hull_id.html

Just plug in your HIN and click print.

Re: Intex Mariner with Europe HIN bought in the US

Sweet. Thank you for your help!