OK...I think it was Tom who replied several times to my original post about
obtaining a HMS permit for a newly purchased boat. I said I'd get back with
my findings, so here they are.

When I made my original call to the NMF to obtain a permit, I was told that
I had to wait until I had the final paperwork in my hands before they could
issue a permit. After lots of research and hand wringing etc, I called the
Coast Guard and they told me that this was BS as the documentation number
wouldn't change.

I tried again on the web site to obtain a permit, but it said that I already
had one, so I figured that the problem was that the previous owner had one
and it wouldn't let me purchase one. I called the NMF again and got a
different clerk who was very helpful. I told her about the problems that
I'd been having and she fixed it all. She removed all of the previous
owner's information, put in my new information, took my credit card info and
I was off and running! I printed my permit while I was on the phone with
her. Piece of cake.

I guess the lesson in all of this and probably most people here already knew
this, but I didn't was that the Coast Guard Documentation number does not
change with ownership. I was able to obtain the necessary permit in a
matter of minutes once I had that knowledge. The web site will not allow
you to purchase a new permit when you buy a used boat until the previous
owner's information has been removed as well. Once you have all of your
information registered, you can renew online every year if you wish, or you
can purchase initial permits online only if you are the original owner.

Hope this helps and thanks for the replies!

Gary