Guide
Checked source by source on 24 September 2026. This is why a report from us never prints a blank and never calls a boat clear when no register exists.
Exists only on Part 1 of the UK Ship Register, for 13,602 pleasure boats, not searchable, £29 a transcript, ordered by email. No lender and no lender group shares data with any register. HPI and the other vehicle checkers cover vehicles only.
The industry stolen boat site launched in 2004 could not be opened on 24 September 2026 and its domain appears to have been re registered this month. The marking company's replacement site needs an account and no public search was found. The police national computer is not open to private companies.
The Boat Index runs a free lost and stolen board with no account needed. On the day we checked it held no entries.
There is no central database of individual hull numbers anywhere in the UK or the EU. A number can be decoded, giving the country, the builder code, the month and the year. It cannot be looked up. British Marine keeps the builder code list and offers a one code lookup for boats sold after 1 January 2021, and answers older codes by email.
There is no legal register of title for pleasure boats. Part 1 proves ownership for the boats on it. Part 3 proves nationality only. For canal boats the Canal and River Trust says it holds who is responsible for the licence, not who owns the boat, and it withdrew its online checker.
Boat Safety Scheme records are open to navigation authority staff, examiners and the scheme's office, not to the public. No insurer shares write off data with anyone.
The register has to be built from the people who hold the data: owners, lenders, insurers, brokers, marinas, marking companies and police. That is what this site is. Until each of them is feeding it, a report says so, in words, in every section where the data does not yet exist.