Recently, I purchased an older 16' boat from a friend. The boat has been registered before but the previous owner did not have a title for the boat (only a bill of sale from 2010). In Indiana, not all boats had to be titled to be able to be on the water. Well, this has changed. On the original bill of sale, it just said "1968 Corl Boating Company) with a four digit identification number. I went to the BMV and they said that I must have a make and model to register the boat. 

 

So, I began to search around for the model of this boat online. Corl Boating Company was a local boating shop located in Indiana; however, they are now out of business. What should my next step be for titling this boat? Is there anything that I missed or potential documents to look at to find this information. Thank you.

Measure the boat and use that as the model. They will not be able to argue since the company is out of business.  For instance if it measures 18 foot tell them the model is  Corl 18. If that did not work I would ask how you title a homemade boat.

55 minutes ago, fishnkamp said:

Measure the boat and use that as the model. They will not be able to argue since the company is out of business.  For instance if it measures 18 foot tell them the model is  Corl 18. If that did not work I would ask how you title a homemade boat.

Thank you for your reply. I just called a friend who deals with titling vehicles on a regular basis. He said that I could register it a couple of ways. Since my boat (jon boat) is technically a "non-motorized rowboat," Indiana does not require titling for such boat. Instead, the title that I have for the boat trailer will count for both, the trailer and the boat. After registering, I can add my outboard and trolling motor without problem. 

Also, he said that I can obtain a title as a "rebuilt" boat considering that I will be adding a trolling motor and outboard.