I bought the boat and have a Bill of sale, but there seems to be some
confusion about who actually has the transferable registration. This
boat has changed hands about three times without the paperwork following
it, once through a boat dealer.

At this point, you have a disputed ownership interest in the boat- at best.

"About" three times? Are there people in the chain you don't know about?

Fortunately, the fix isn't all that difficult.
You won't need all the intermediate parties to sign off on the title or
registration because they never legally owned anything. As far as the state is
concerned, the guy who sold you the boat didn't own it. You will need to track
down the last party who had the title and get them to sign off. Just hope you
don't discover that the boat was stolen out of the last registered owner's
driveway.......

You can also thank your lucky stars that there was a dealer involved with one
of the transactions. Is he/she still in business?
They may be sitting on the title, having overlooked doing the transfer. If CA
is like WA, the dealer's chestnuts could be roasting on an open fire if he/she
sold the boat without valid title. I would think the dealer would have a
sincere interest in helping you solve this problem with as little attention
from the state as possible. :-)

The boat came with a trailer, and the trailer has a legal state title
from the guy I bought it from. I spoke with the dealer and he is
looking into his record(file) of the transaction, he seems friendly
enough, hopefully he will have the registration. I'm just wondering,
could the last owner could have had the registration suspended or
confiscated for some reason? Like DUI or a lien or something else? (I
did find a couple of bottles of liquor in the boat) Because the guy
really didn't want to talk about it. Any ideas?

Go to a DMV office and ask them. Make an appointment first to save time.
They will help you in the situation. They actually do help at times.

wrote in message
...
The boat came with a trailer, and the trailer has a legal state title
from the guy I bought it from. I spoke with the dealer and he is
looking into his record(file) of the transaction, he seems friendly
enough, hopefully he will have the registration. I'm just wondering,
could the last owner could have had the registration suspended or
confiscated for some reason? Like DUI or a lien or something else? (I
did find a couple of bottles of liquor in the boat) Because the guy
really didn't want to talk about it. Any ideas?