FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: Identify Production Year from HIN

A conversation among Whalers
Anthonyburris
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2017 2:44 am

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: Identify Production Year from HIN

Postby Anthonyburris » Tue Sep 12, 2017 2:53 am

[A boat that is the topic of this discussion is reported to have a HIN that reads] BWC8C3741394 or possibly BWC8C 374 394. The "1" may be a dash between the two number groups, I am not sure.

I know [this boat is] a 25 GUARDIAN. I am guessing it's a [1994] because the HIN ends in 94.

Can anything further about this boat be determined from the HIN? Explain to me what [additional information can be obtained from the HIN]--[I] would greatly appreciate it. Aloha!

Thank you in advance for any and all information.

Whalerdog
Posts: 123
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2015 8:08 pm

Re: What year is my whaler

Postby Whalerdog » Fri Sep 15, 2017 2:59 pm

1994 last two digits

jimh
Posts: 11670
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:25 pm
Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
Contact:

Re: Identify Production Year from HIN

Postby jimh » Sun Sep 17, 2017 9:21 am

Regarding what information can be obtained from a boat hull's HIN, you can determine the following information:

--manufacturer
--manufacturer's serial number
--year of production
--month of production
--model year designation

This is explained in detail in the FAQ. See

Q1: How Old Is My Whaler?
http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/FAQ/#Q1

Q2: Where is the Hull Identification Number?
http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/FAQ/#Q2

If you read the FAQ Q2 answer, you will learn the format of the HIN for a c.1994 boat requires the NEW FORMAT for HIN, and thus the manufacturer's serial number is encoded in five characters. On that basis, the HIN is likely to read "8C374" for the manufacturer's serial number. This identification is in good agreement with the Boston Whaler HIN allocation chart. (See link to chart in the FAQ.) 25-foot boats are assigned the production serial number sequence 8C000 to 8C999.

You can also find the month and year of production or manufacture, and the model year. The last two digits in the HIN are the model year, thus your boat is a 1994 model year. The two characters preceeding the last two encode the month and year of production. The month is encoded with alpha characters (see FAQ for guidance) and the production year by a single digit. Since there is a "3" as the third-to-last character, we can assume the production year was 1993. Your report of the other character as digit 1 is probably in error. The character may be an uppercase letter "I". That would indicate production month was September. This is a good interpretation because in September 1993 the boat was probably being sold as a 1994 model.

This is all the information that can be determined from the HIN. If you seek more information about the particular boat you have, you MAY be able to obtain a few more details from Boston Whaler customer service; they can usually find the dealer to whom the boat was delivered. Other details about the exact order or build options may or may not be available.

If you wish to include photographs in a posting to the forum, you can do so, but generally a photograph of a HIN is not going to be particularly more useful than just providing the HIN data as text.

If you need advice about including photographs, see the article in the INTRODUCTION that explains more.

Adding Image to Post
http://continuouswave.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2569

jimh
Posts: 11670
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:25 pm
Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
Contact:

Re: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: Identify Production Year from HIN

Postby jimh » Fri Sep 29, 2017 1:22 pm

A bashful participant emailed me and asked for an interpretation of a HIN from a boat he describes as a SPORT 15. The HIN is

BWC 10nnCM81k (I intentionally obscure part of the HIN for privacy.)

This appears to be a HIN in the MODEL YEAR FORMAT prior to August 1984

This is interpreted as follows:

BWC = MIC for Boston Whaler
10nnC = production sequence number
M = indicates MODEL YEAR FORMAT; this is the big CLUE to identify what format the HIN has been structured in
81 = two-digit year of production, 1981
K = month of production, coded as K for JUNE (see code table in the FAQ)

The HIN identifies a boat made in June 1981 by Boston Whaler with production sequence number 10nnC.

We then turn to the HIN production sequence chart for further help. In the chart we find that the sequence 10nnC would be used for a 15-foot model.

We also confirm the production sequence on the untitled table of production sequence numbers. The table shows that 1000A through 3999Z are to be used with 15-foot Sport, Bass Boat, Striper, Center Console, Super Sport, SSL, GL, Standard, Mischief, Utility, and Alert model from 1975 onward.

The bashful correspondent notes the interior is blue. I doubt that is the OEM color. The SPORT 15 was first introduced in 1976 and used a Desert Tan interior color. Many examples are shown in CETACEA and in the REFERENCE article on the 15-foot hull.