How long are boat stickers good for in Texas?

No grace period AFAIK. Not many use their boat to go to work daily. But with that being said, I am fairly certain they aren't going to come out to your storage unit to issue a citation. If the boat is observed out on the water with expired tags I'm betting the registration tag being out of date will be the least of your problems. Like proper safety gear per CG regs.

Long time bass fisherman, in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, West by God Virginia,Minnesota,Indiana,Canada and now my new home state of Texas.

The biennial task of renewing state boat registration will require some owners of the nearly 600,000 registered vessels in Texas to provide additional personal information - driver's license number or other state-issued ID number and date of birth - to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. And if affected boat owners opt to mail their renewal form and fee instead of accomplishing the transaction online or in person, it could be as long as two months before the renewal is processed.

The changes and the potential delay in Texas' registration processing are a result of modifications in federal rules governing boat registration, vessel/owner identification and the national boating accident reporting database.

Under changes in federal rules adopted in 2012, all states must, by Jan. 1, 2017, implement changes aimed at improving the quality of information on boat ownership states collect and are mandated to share with U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Coast Guard. Those federal entities have authority to set national minimum standards for registration of boats equipped with propulsion machinery of any kind, standardized boat numbering/identification system, boating safety/equipment requirements and boating accident reporting.

States must set their boating registration, vessel identification/numbering, boating safety equipment requirements and boating accident reporting requirement to conform with those federal standards.

New rules

The new rules are designed to "improve boating safety efforts, enhance law enforcement capabilities, clarify requirements for all stakeholders and promote the Coast Guard strategic goals of maritime safety and security," according to a federal justification for the changes.

Under the rules effective Jan. 1, applications for boat titles, title transfers, registration and registration renewal must include personal identifying information on the boat owner including, for individuals, social security number, driver license number or other state-issued ID number, date of birth and signature. If the boat title or registration is in the name of a company or business, the document must include that company's or business' federal employer identification number.

When TPWD learned of the change in requirements more than four years, the agency added the information to its boat titling and registration forms. But with boat registrations done before the new forms, driver license number and date or birth were not included.

In a move aimed at minimizing impact on those boat owners, TPWD worked with Texas Department of Motor Vehicles to match names and addresses on boat registration and driver licenses, said Julie Gilmore, manager of boat titling, registration and marine licensing for TPWD's administrative resources division. The agency did the same with the state's Comptroller of Public Accounts to connect companies and businesses listed as owners of boats and integrate that information into the registration database.

Online renewal best

But some boat owners' registration can't be matched with those records and necessary information added. Maybe they used their middle name to register the vessel, have a common name, changed address or otherwise are not easily matched with other records.

When those boat owners receive their vessel registration renewal notice, the form will have a space noted in which the boat owner can add the required information.

The easiest and fastest option for those boaters, TPWD officials said, is to renew their registration online. The online renewal allows input of the newly required personal information and payment, by credit card, of registration renewal fee. The agency will mail the new registration decals and boat registration card within two business days, and a printout of the receipt is valid immediately.

The online renewal, which TPWD has offered since 2009 and now accounts for about 35 percent of renewals, comes with a modest additional charge. That online processing/handling fee, which goes to the company handling the electronic transaction, is $0.98 for Class A vessels (less than 16 feet) and $1.45 for Class 1 vessels, those 16-26 feet in length.

In-person transactions also are an option boaters can use to quickly resolve any gaps in required information on boat registration, registration renewal, title or title transfers. In-person transactions, which require the boater owner to provide a valid, government-issued photo identification card, can be done at TPWD's Austin headquarters, any of the agency's 27 law enforcement division field offices or the tax assessor-collector offices in many of Texas 254 counties.

Processing delays

The option of mailing the completed registration renewal notice and payment to TPWD, used by about 35 percent of boaters, is the one that could significantly delay processing, TPWD officials said. While the agency has an automated system to process the large number of mailed registration renewals - more than 100,000 annually - the renewals that don't have the required owner identification information on record will require manual entry of the information. That additional workload will create a backlog that could delay processing for one to two months, TPWD officials said.

Texas began implementing the requirements for collecting any missing required identifying information Sept. 12, with notifications of the new requirements sent with each registration renewal notice. Because Texas boat registration renewals are valid for two years, it could take a couple of years for the state to cycle through the 583,000 boats registered in Texas as of Aug. 31, 2016, and fully integrate the federally required information.

No only boats, but PWC require registration numbers in the state of Texas. We will step you through the process, read on below in order to get started.

General information about numbers

We'll guide you through the process of creating Texas boat numbers when you click design now. Each state has specific verbiage as to their requirements. See the Texas specific section below. The general requirements for boat registrations numbers are as follows:

• A minimum of 3" letter height
• A block style font such as (impact or arial black)
• Generally located on the forward hull portion of the boat next to the DNR tag
• A contrasting color to base color of your boat.
• Letters separated by a space or a dash (-)

Texas Specific Registration Laws

Please review your state specific requirements before purchasing identification decals as they do vary from state to state. Our designer is setup to comply with the general requirements above. If you require a specific requirement not in our designer, just leave a comment at checkout and we'll adust your design (no big deal!). The Texas parks and wildlife puts out a summarized version of the Water Safety Act which contains the specific information you need to read Here.

Placement Information

Texas specifies that boat numbers be placed on the forward portion of the boat (the bow) on both sides.

Number Kits are Standard

Our texas number kits are solid as a pair with 2.

How does my lettering arrive?

Your vinyl lettering is cut, weeded, and coated in a transfer tape ready to install. Installation instructions are located here. We have many optional installation accessories located in our accessories section.

Good quality fast shipping, would recommend it.

Decals looked great and instructions made it easy to apply

Fantastic product with easy installation!

The tack spray for wet install was the way to go.

Good quality product. Quick turnaround time. I would absolutely recommend this company.

Pleasantly surprised on how well this turned out. The website was easy to use and I will definitely use this site again for lettering. Very pleased!

Installation instructions clear and helpful. Our dog is named Bubbles and we SCUBA dive, blowing lots of bubbles so a natural name for our Stingray 185.

Exact match to what I ordered! Good job guys.

Lots of fonts colors to choose from to make the perfect decal for our boat.

Great quality, a great video for installation, and easy install.

Everything worked out well, from ordering to shipping. Decal applied easily following instructions you provided.

In this video we provide a short walk through of the features of our online design tool. You can jump right in and play with it or watch this video if you want to see how everything works.

You'll need Texas boat numbers if you are boating in these major lakes (and any other state owned body of water)

Toledo Bend Reservoir - Sam Rayburn Lake - Lake Texoma - Richland Chambers Lake - Lake Livingston