All car owners have to register their vehicles - but if you own a boat, it's a different matter.
Maritime NZ covers commercial vessels and international voyagers, but for most recreational boats registration requirements are patchy and there is no national data base.
That means finding the owner of a drifting vessel, proving a boat is yours if it's stolen, or giving emergency services details of a boat are all difficult.
Now a private group has set up the NZ Boat Register in an effort to establish a one stop repository of information about recreational vessels.
Sam Allen is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of NZ Boat Register
