I sold the boat two years ago. The person that purchased the boat from
me didn't register it and the boat is now in an impound yard. It is
mine if I pay the fees to get it out.

No it isn't.

The impound yard will release it to you, gladly, if you pay the (usually
exorbitant) fees to get it released. They can get away with this because the
state records show that you are in title. It isn't their job to try to keep
legal ownership straight, but state titling or registration merely records
ownership in most cases rather than grants it.

The downside- if you don't claim the boat and you buyer doesn't show up to
claim the boat the impound fees will continue to mount until they finally sell
the boat at auction. If impound and storage fees get up to $2000 (easily could
in some cases) and the boat brings $300 at auction, you will be on the hook for
$1700. You can lose either way. Because of this, our state and probably many
others have a form called "sellers report of sale" that a seller fills out and
sends to the state to report the sale of a vessel or a vehicle. That gets the
seller off the hook for impound fees, etc.

You are not really in title in any way except per the state paper trail. You
surrendered ownership of the boat when you accepted money for it from your
purchaser. It's no longer your boat.

Racing the guy you sold it to down to the impound yard and paying the impound
fee before he does, won't change the fact that he paid you for the boat and you
surrendered it to him in exchange for the money.

In fact, once you have paid the impound fees and the boat is out, what stops
the guy from suing you? Little or nothing.

To do this right, you contact the guy you sold the boat to and let him know the
boat's been impounded. If he says, "I don't want that POS anymore, they can
keep it" or something similar, the next thing to do would be to ask him to sign
a release of interest passing the title back to you.

With that done, if you pay the impound fees and (probably) fix the motor for
additional big dollars, you won't find the guy standing in your driveway with
the deputy sheriff, waving the bill of sale and the cancelled check for that
boat and proceeding to make your life possibly very complicated.

Be grateful he didn't kill somebody with this thing in the two years he had it.
Although it doesn't seem fair, you come out on the losing end of that sometimes
as well. The attorney for the survivors will want to argue that the boat was
still "in your name."

Lesson here should be, always make sure the sale is reported to the state.