Establishing Year of Construction

[dsullivan]

Q1: what document can I use to establish the actual [model year or] year of construction of a 1989 OUTRAGE 18?

Background: in c.2017 I bought a 1989 OUTRAGE 18 from a private seller in Connecticut. I registered the boat with the DMV in New York, using copies of the Bill of Sale, the seller's Title, and the prior state's registration certificate. However, the New York registrar mistakenly entered the boat's year as 1980.

I now am planning to sell the boat, and I want to correct the year-built on the New York registration and title, I need to show proof to the DMV that the correct year is 1989, but am not sure how to do so. Speaking with the DMV, I mentioned that the last two digits of the HIN ("89") indicated that it was built in 1989, but my word was not sufficient. I tried calling Boston Whaler and they said that they no longer have records of HIN's prior to 1997 or so.

Q2: what else I could do in this situation to prove year built to the DMV?

[jimh]

Q1: what document can I use to establish the actual [model year or] year of construction of a 1989 OUTRAGE 18?

The best evidence you can provide to indicate the actual model year and the year of construction of your 1989 OUTRAGE 18 boat is to take a clear photograph of the federal hull identification number, and refer to the method of interpretation of that number that allows you to deduce the model year and the year of and month of construction. Or even better, if the federal hull number is accurately transcribed onto the present or previous registrations, and you have a true copy of those documents, use those documents

The FAQ Answers at

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/FAQ/#Q2

should be useful. However, if the State of New York wants to see the actual federal regulations, you can print out those regulations from the on-line version at

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-33/c ... ion-181.25

Of course, you will need a bureaucrat in the Department of Motor Vehicles in the State of New York who has the following characteristics:

• can read;
• can understand federal regulations;
• can properly decode the data in the federal hull identification number shown in your photograph or prior paperwork;
• is then cognizant that an error has occurred; and,
• is willing to help you get the error made by the DMV corrected.

Based on my own experience in interacting with a state department of motor vehicles, there may be a strong correlation with finding a person who exhibits all the necessary characteristics and that person working at a small office in a small village in your state.

ASIDE: I have updated the answer at FAQ #2 to include a link to the actual federal regulations (mentioned above) that describe how the federal hull identification number is to be encoded and composed.

[jimh]

Speaking with the DMV, I mentioned that the last two digits of the HIN ("89") indicated that it was built in 1989...

Your interpretation of the HIN is not correct. The last two characters of the federal hull identification indicate the model year, not the actual year of construction. It is very common that the year of construction will be one year earlier than the model year designation. This occurs because the model changeover often takes place in mid-Summer, and boats being built in August or later will be identified as being the next year's model.

Your interest in determining the year of construction notwithstanding, the model year designation is most commonly used to identify a particular Boston Whaler boat. The model year identifies the particular characteristics of the boat, which typically varied by model year, not by year of construction.

[dsullivan]

Thanks for the info. Luckily I have an active transferable registration with the correct HIN on it.

So based on that, since the last four digits of my HIN are “A989” that would mean that the last two say it's a 1989 model year and the “A9” would then indicate it was constructed January 1989?

[jimh]

…since the last four digits of my HIN are “A989” that would mean that the last two say it's a 1989 model year and the “A9” would then indicate it was constructed January 1989?

Yes. The HIN is in the “new” format, which became mandatory after August 1984. Deducing the boat dates from 1989 is thus congruent with the interpretation of the HIN.

If the incorrectly entered date of "1980" were correct, then the HIN would have been in a different format.