When you talk to your lawyer friend, ask if there are any Fla laws that would convince people to move quickly on solving this problem.

When Texas required title and registration they setup a uniform procedure (include a notarized statement that this boat is yours and why it was never titled). They did not do this to be nice but because they wanted the money and they were worried about actions against them. My memory is fuzzy but some of the concerns were: No uniform enforcement. Someone getting jailed or even hurt because of misapplications of a different law (conducting a criminal investigations because you want to comply with the new boat law). Change of status of property. I don't understand this but the example was "I got an aluminum canoe with my house".

Keep pushing and remember at least in Tx they did not care about existing boats. They wanted the sales tax on new boats and they just needed a way to get the old boats into the system, without spending too much money.

Write down how much money the state collects on each old boat, how many hours state employees spend, and multiply by an estimate of the number of unregistered boats. Write up a nice letter. Send a copy to the author of the bill, all the State Rep's in your area and couple of TV stations and newspapers. For $50 you can send out a lot of letters, I know don't ask me how.

Can you file class action in Fla?