posted 03-26-2015 10:16 PM ET (US)        

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Thanks to a new boat registration computer system in the state of Alabama, my registration renewal was red flagged because my HIN is only 11 characters instead of 12. The HIN is BWC7162M84F, however only the embossed 7162 84F is visible on the metal tag on the transom. I know the printed (non-embossed) BWC and M have long since faded away from the metal tag. Apparently there is another printed character that has faded I am missing. According to the FAQ, it looks like it goes with the 7162 portion of my HIN, as that is described as being five characters long. Does anyone know if this character should be alpha or numeric, or is this a Chuck Bennett question?

thanks
Jon

posted 03-26-2015 11:12 PM ET (US)            

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Jon -- The missing character in the HIN is almost certainly alpha, not numeric.

If you told what boat you had, we could probably pin it down. The "7162" in the serial part of the HIN suggests you may have a 17' Whaler model and that number (in 1984) would probably have been proceeded by the letter "H".

Thus the correct HIN would be BWCH7162M82F indicating the boat was built in February of 1984 as a 1984 model

You can contact Whaler Customer Service with the hull's Stenciled Serial Number and they may be able to cross-reference it with the HIN to verify this.

An email response from the factory with this information should be good enough provenance for Alabama's Department of Licensing

posted 03-27-2015 08:01 AM ET (US)            

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Boston Whaler codes the hull, though not necessarily the model, into each HIN. To [decode] the code, one need only look at the chart Whaler has specifying how each hull's HIN is coded

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/020651.html

posted 03-27-2015 08:49 AM ET (US)            

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The chart showing the HIN SEQUENCE used by Boston Whaler is available at

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/FAQ/hin-sequence.pdf

The chart was issued in c.1992. There is a link to it in the FAQ.

posted 03-27-2015 08:57 AM ET (US)            

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There is also a second chart or table that gives data about the HIN sequence. It is also linked to from the FAQ.

I just added a new heading, "HIN Sequence", to the FAQ answer for Question #2to make this information a little more prominent.

In general, the answers in the FAQ contain a lot of information in a concise presentation, and one needs to carefully read them to gather all the information available, including the linked information.

posted 03-27-2015 09:22 AM ET (US)            

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The federal requirements for the HIN do not suggest or require any particular means of encoding a hull length or model designator. As Tom has mentioned, if you use the supplemental data from the HIN sequences employed by Boston Whaler (contained in two charts that are linked from the FAQ), you can deduce the hull length. (Of course, you can deduce the hull length from measuring the hull, too.) Whether or not you can also deduce the model designation depends on the particular sequence. Sometimes Boston Whaler used a sequence of HIN numbers for more than one specific model, and sometimes they used a particular sequence for only one model. In the latter case you could make a reasonable inference about the model and its HIN correlation.

Now, as for how Tom deduced the missing letter was an "H", I don't see how that comes from the charts or tables. I think it must come from some additional historical data about the HIN sequences that is not contained in those charts and tables. Perhaps Tom has his own resources for this.

posted 03-27-2015 11:12 AM ET (US)            

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You can see "the old books" in a photograph I included with my article on a Factory Tour of Boston Whaler I was able to make a few years--a decade--ago. You can also see your friendly, expert, and most helpful correspondent, Chuck Bennett, in one of the photo-illustrations. See

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/factory.html