Texas boat registrations

I was reading a post on the forums that was talking about the pitfalls of traveling to various states with the kayak and encountering potential problems with locals laws as apposed to those in our home states. Reading that made me revisit the rules in my home state, Texas, just to make sure I'm good to go. Turns out I am as far as my Revolution 16 is concerned as all kayaks, etc, regardless of length, are exempt from registration requirements as long as they're only powered by paddle, peddle, etc. Next down the list were sailboats. Sailboats under 14' long don't have to be registered. All powered boats do have to be registered.

Now here's the kicker and the source of my question. If any kind of power, trolling motor etc., is added to the boat (they were talking sailboats at the time) then it becomes a powered vessel and all regulations related to such must be followed. So, my question is, has anyone who's added the evolve electric propulsion to their Hobie kayak had to have the boat registered, hull numbers and everything?

Thanks,
Steve R.

In the state of TEXAS is you have a bathtub and place a gas engine or an electric motor on it you would have to register the tub if you place it in public water. So yes any item with gas or electric on it will have to be registered. I saw a float tube at Falcon and it had the registration numbers on it because it had a 1.5 horse motor on it.

Good Luck and if you have questions and want a professional answer call the Texas Parks and Wildlife department in Austin.

If you are in Texas, then go to the county court house or where they register cars and trucks. The clerk's staff will have all the paper work for you to fill out. To get the registration for the yak, you would send the paper work and money order to Austin.

Here you go...: <https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/boat/owner/titles_and_registration/>

HOpe this helps...

It's not something I'm worried about as I don't plan on powering my Hobie with anything else but me! I was just wondering if this had been an issue for anyone else. It does seem a bit overkill for what amounts to nothing more than a trolling motor on a kayak.

Overkill is not the issue. It is about collection of money that is not consider tax money (bad word in Texas), but rather about paying for fees and licencs money... Not a bad word if only the user has to pay. This is not an offical stance, but rather an opinion of my own; and good 'ol Gov. Mark White. He ran on "NO NEW TAXES" and so we now have fees and other ways to raise money in the State of Texas. (I will get of my soapbox now.)