Registering (or not registering) your boat in Michigan

2026 fees as written — and a fee-increase bill was pending in the Legislature as of mid-2026, so confirm at renewal.

The decision table

Boat registration runs through the Secretary of State — not the DNR. Whether you owe them a visit:

Your craft	Register?	Title?
Anything with a motor — gas or electric, any size, including a trolling motor on a kayak	Yes	At 20+ feet or permanent engine
Sailboat (any size)	Yes	Same thresholds
Rowboat or other hand-powered boat over 16 feet	Yes	No
Canoe or kayak, paddle-powered, any length	No	No
Paddleboard, raft, surfboard (non-commercial)	No	No

The highlighted row is the famous trapdoor. Clamp a trolling motor on your fishing kayak and you’ve created a motorboat — MC numbers on the hull, registration decals, and (depending on your birthday) the safety certificate.

The mechanics

• Three-year registration, expiring March 31 of the third year. Renew online, by mail, or at an SOS office.
• Fees scale with length — roughly $14 for the smallest motorboats, up to several hundred dollars for big cruisers, on the current schedule.
• The pending increase: a bill in the Legislature would raise watercraft fees about 30%, with built-in increases after — the first meaningful change in decades. It’s part of the same recreation-funding push as the hunting and fishing fee proposals. As of mid-2026 it had not passed. Current fees apply until it does, and our what-changed page will say so if it does.
• Titles prove ownership; registration is for operating. Titles are required at 20 feet and up, or with a permanently mounted engine. A 6% use tax applies on transfers, with family-transfer exemptions.
• Buying used? Check the hull identification number against the title, like you would a car’s VIN. Walk away from a titled-class boat with no title.
• Display: MC numbers and decals go on the forward hull, per the SOS spec.
• Visitors: out-of-state registrations are good in Michigan for 60 days.
• The genuine surprise: registration applies on private lakes too. Your own pond’s rowboat may be exempt by size, but the pontoon isn’t exempt by privacy.
• The fun one: boats 30+ years old can register as historic vessels at about a third of the fee, with restricted use. Michigan’s classic-car rule, afloat.

The signpost

Current fees and forms at Michigan.gov/SOS. Start with Boating and paddling in Michigan, explained.