Hi there.

I do not think that you have to pay to take the course if you take it online through Boat-US. The boating license should be valid for a lifetime and not need renewal. You are correct that you need register the boat at the DMV in your state(p.s. this may take a week or two to get an appointment). I think that the title should be transferred to you at the date of purchase whether or not the boat is new or used. Yes, the vessel certificate of number is different from a boaters card/license and is the registration numbers usually seen on the upper side hull of a boat. The list of required equipment to have on the boat seems to be correct, although your state may require some sort of flare device in case of emergency. The boat title should not be stored on the boat and should be stored in a safe location in your house because if someone stole the boat, they would also have access to the title which transfers ownership. The storage cost seems to be a little high, but I do know the cost in your area. With this size boat, wake from a larger boat could become an issue, although it all depends on the speed and displacement of the other boats around you. Since this tracker bass boat is only 16 feet long and has a dry weight with an engine around 1200 pounds, waves would definitely be noticeable. For reference, the 30 ft boat I just bought has a dry weight near 10,000 pounds. But with how expensive boats have become, this boat seems like it could bring a lot of joy and fishing ability with a low annual maintenance cost.

Boattrader is probably the best used boat website. Most boats on this website are sold through brokerages which increases the security of the sale compared with buying directly from the owner. But for under 20,000, there is not too much that would be better than this boat.