Identify Boat From HIN and Picture

A conversation among Whalers
South Haven
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Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2022 1:47 pm

Identify Boat From HIN and Picture

Postby South Haven » Mon Apr 25, 2022 2:07 pm

From a friend I bought a 13-footer. I want to deduce the "model number."

HIN_.jpg
Fig. 1. The HIN from a boat to be identified.
HIN_.jpg (5.22 KiB) Viewed 2360 times
redDot_.jpg
Fig. 2. A red dot on the hull of boat to be identified
redDot_.jpg (22.73 KiB) Viewed 2360 times
boat_.jpg
Fig. 3. A boat to be identified.
boat_.jpg (24.9 KiB) Viewed 2360 times


Is my boat Sport GLS2?

ASIDE: I contacted Boston Whaler. The gal there said they have no build sheet for the boat--that seems odd to me, but I'm new to the boating world.

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Phil T
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Re: Identify Boat From HIN and Picture

Postby Phil T » Tue Apr 26, 2022 11:21 am

The boat shown in the photo is a 13 Utility produced by the Commercial Products Division (CPD) of Boston Whaler for a commercial customer. It is a heavy duty version of the 13 Sport.

catalogPage_.jpg
Fig. 4. A page from a catalog.
catalogPage_.jpg (98.71 KiB) Viewed 2360 times
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conch
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Re: Identify Boat From HIN and Picture

Postby conch » Tue Apr 26, 2022 12:21 pm

A hull from Commercial Products Division (CPD) of Boston Whaler is not automatically a red dot. The extra lay up of resin and cloth was a stand alone option that could be ordered or not. The Red Dot or Black Dot placed in the gelcoat acknowledged that installed option.

jimh
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Re: Identify Boat From HIN and Picture

Postby jimh » Tue Apr 26, 2022 12:46 pm

If you bought the boat from a seller who was your friend, that friend should be able to offer you more information about the history of the boat than you can get from the HIN or from pictures of the boat or from a "gal" on the telephone at Boston Whaler. But that notwithstanding, I will decode the HIN for you.

The HIN for the boat as seen in Figure 1 can be decoded as follows:

HIN = BWC N3287 H 5 96

BWC = the Manufacturer Id Code or MIC; BWC = Boston Whaler
N3287 = a production serial number
H = month of production JULY
5 = Year of production (1995)
96 = Model year 1996

Note: The MIC for Boston Whaler Commercial and Government Products (CGP) boats made after July 2001 changed to WCG. So this boat could have been made by that department of Boston Whaler in 1995.

Advice about interpretation of hull identification numbers is in the FAQ.

Within the HIN and only in regard to Boston Whaler boats, the production serial number can give hints to the model based on the alpha-numerical production code sequence used. See the FAQ

In this instance the production sequence code N3287 contains the N3 prefix. The N3 prefix is designated for use for 13 foot hulls of GL, ST, SS, and SP models. The meaning of those two-letter model codes is explained in the FAQ. For clarity in this discussion, here is the meaning of the four codes mentioned above:
GL=GLS
ST=STANDARD
SS=SUPER SPORT
SP=SPORT

The model length is apparent from the boat's actual length: 13-footer.

The interior arrangement appears to be somewhat custom. In 1996 the Boston Whaler recreational catalogue only listed one 13-foot model, the 13 SPORT GLS.

The most likely applicable model designator for this boat is thus 13 STANDARD.

As mentioned, the RED DOT marking indicates heavier hull lay-up was done. This is called a "work boat" hull. So the boat would be a 13 STANDARD with Work Boat hull lay-up.

NOTE: there was a convention that a boat built to a work-boat layup would have the letters WB appended to the hull identification number. That seems to be missing in the HIN for this boat.

Phil's comment that the boat was made by the custom products division may be true, so the boat could be a 13 UTILITY with Work Boat lay-up

Sometime after 1995, the Commercial and Government Products division (which made custom boats to order) was separated away from Boston Whaler, became the Brunswick Government Boats operation, and adapted boats from some other Brunswick owned companies for government and commercial use. See

https://www.brunswickcgp.com/

I believe that the use of non-Boston Whaler hulls is probably no longer done with boats from Brunswick CGP.

That at the present-day a person who answers telephone calls at Boston Whaler about Boston Whaler boats made in 1995 (27-years-ago) might not familiar with the existence of a document called "a build sheet" is not surprising. I don't have any awareness of a "built sheet" being available for any particular individual Boston Whaler boat on demand from the company via a telephone call.

ASIDE: I would ignore the telephone person's gender, and concentrate more on their age and number of year at Boston Whaler as a guide to how knowledgeable they could be. Boston Whaler has a number of "gals" in senior positions these days, and they often have multiple advanced degrees in engineering, business, and management.

Jefe13
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Re: Identify Boat From HIN and Picture

Postby Jefe13 » Tue Aug 23, 2022 1:06 pm

This is great information. I just purchased a 1997 13-Utility. I thought is was a standard 13-sport at first because of the layout. I didn't know these existed.

Jefecinco
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Re: Identify Boat From HIN and Picture

Postby Jefecinco » Thu Aug 25, 2022 9:00 am

From the photograph I believe your boat is sitting on a roller trailer. Roller trailers are not usually recommended for Boston Whaler hulls due to the possibility of dimpling of the hull. In the case of a fairly light CPD hull this may be unimportant but it could be worth your time to look into that.
Butch

jimh
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Re: Identify Boat From HIN and Picture

Postby jimh » Tue Oct 11, 2022 8:06 am

There is a lot of good information in this thread. The initiator of the thread has never replied to any of the responses to his inquiry, and has not been active on the website since the day he posted his initial questions. Thread is now closed.