Determine Model from Stencil Number or HIN

A conversation among Whalers
Inovermyhead
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2022 9:16 am

Determine Model from Stencil Number or HIN

Postby Inovermyhead » Tue Jun 07, 2022 9:40 am

Q1: on a c.1973 16-footer with stencil number 3A68nn, how can I determine the original model build?

Q21: is data about the original model configuration encoded into the federal hull identification number (HIN)?

Q3: can Boston Whaler identify the original configuration?

BACKSTORY. I recently bought a 1973 16-footer that has been neglected. There is severe cracking in the gel coat on the hull exterior and interior. The transom and hull are solid. I am sure the Unibond hull has retained water. The boat has been stripped.

jimh
Posts: 11678
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:25 pm
Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
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Re: Determine Model from Stencil Number or HIN

Postby jimh » Tue Jun 07, 2022 11:43 am

Welcome to ownership of an older Boston Whaler boat.

Your questions already have been frequently asked. Please see the information in the WHALER section of the website in the REFERENCE subsection in the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS article. Here are the links:

WHALER section of website:
https://continuouswave.com/whaler/

REFERENCE section of the WHALER section:
https://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS article in the REFERENCE section of the WHALER section of the website:
https://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/FAQ/

Portions of the FAQ that discuss hull stencil numbers and federal HIN numbers:

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

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

ASIDE: if this is your first Boston Whaler boat you should read all the FAQ questions and answers. You should read the REFERENCE article on the 16/17-foot hull:

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/16-17/

jimh
Posts: 11678
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:25 pm
Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
Contact:

Re: Determine Model from Stencil Number or HIN

Postby jimh » Tue Jun 07, 2022 11:51 am

In case you don't bother to read the FAQ and REFERENCE articles, I will explicitly answer your three questions:

Inovermyhead wrote:Q1: on a c.1973 16-footer with stencil number 3A68nn, how can I determine the original model build?
You cannot determine the original model build from the stencil number. The stencil number does not encode this data.

Inovermyhead wrote:Q2: is data about the original model configuration encoded into the federal hull identification number (HIN)?
No data about model configuration is encoded into the federal HIN.

Inovermyhead wrote:Q3: can Boston Whaler identify the original configuration of my boat?
For many years the customer service people at Boston Whaler could determine the model configuration of an older hull by its stencil number by reference to very old ledgers that were kept during production. Since 2020, access to Boston Whaler customer service people has been difficult due to the influence of the pandemic and working their from home.

If you do inquire with Boston Whaler about this, please report the outcome of your inquiry, that is, how you made it, did you actually talk to a person, did they have the data.

More about the old ledgers with model information is provided in this article in REFERENCE:

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/refer ... ctory.html

Inovermyhead
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2022 9:16 am

Re: Determine Model from Stencil Number or HIN

Postby Inovermyhead » Tue Jun 07, 2022 3:17 pm

Thank you for the replies.

I contacted Georgia DNR to inquire about the boats registration history as I found an old 1997 registration number on a faded sticker on the hull.The DNR was able to provide the HIN assigned to the boat and tell me the year (1973).

I did contact the manufacturer and spoke with a very nice lady who took my boat information. She stated she enjoyed looking up old boat information and began a search of their records. She mentioned the stencil number was much more important on these older boats and the HIN was hard to find and did not provided data on their end/


I received an email several hours later with this information. The boat was a 1973 Currituck which was delivered to D D Marine in West Palm Beach FL on 2/22/1973. I was also provided an email copy of the original owners manual and several pictures of what these boats looked like in their original configurations.

Probably some of the best customer service I have ever experienced.

jimh
Posts: 11678
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:25 pm
Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
Contact:

Re: Determine Model from Stencil Number or HIN

Postby jimh » Wed Jun 08, 2022 7:02 am

Inovermyhead wrote:I contacted Georgia DNR to inquire about the boats registration history as I found an old 1997 registration number on a faded sticker on the hull.The DNR was able to provide the HIN assigned to the boat and tell me the year (1973).
The information a state boat registrar like the Georgia DNR can provide is whatever the person who registered the boat told them. As a general rule a state boat registrar just accepts whatever information the person paying for the registration decal provides them. It might be accurate, or it might not. But it is not really authoritative. It is common to find people have registered boats with the wrong model year, the wrong model, and even the wrong manufacturer.

Inovermyhead wrote:I did contact the manufacturer...
I think you mean Boston Whaler.

Inovermyhead wrote:...and spoke with a very nice lady who took my boat information. She stated she enjoyed looking up old boat information and began a search of their records.
Thanks for the information that you could reach a customer service representative on the telephone and that Boston Whaler could still look up records for their old boats.

Inovermyhead wrote:She mentioned the stencil number was much more important on these older boats and the HIN was hard to find and did not provided data on their end.
Regarding the federal HIN on boats, prior to the Safe Boating Act of 1971, there was no federal regulation that required a boat manufactured in the United States to have a unique identification number attached to every hull according to a uniform scheme set out by the government. The use of federal HIN identification began in 1972. So "older" boats, that is boat made prior to 1972 never had a federal HIN because they did not exist then.

The HIN can be decoded to provide some limited data about a Boston Whaler boat from the production sequence alpha-numeric number. As is explained in the FAQ, the production sequence identifier was used by Boston Whaler in particular sequences associated with particular hull lengths and in some cases particular models. All of this information is in the FAQ, including Boston Whaler documents that describe the production sequence numbering scheme. You really should read the FAQ to learn about hull identification, if you have an interest in that topic.

If your boat was a 1973 it would have had a HIN identification. The FAQ explains this is more detail. The FAQ also explains that the method of attachment of the federal HIN identification used by Boston Whaler was a metal tag that was attached to the hull by rivets, but that often on older boats those metal tags are no longer in place. If there is no longer a metal tag with the federal HIN on your hull, the tag probably became unattached and was lost.

Inovermyhead wrote:I received an email several hours later....the boat was a 1973 Currituck which was delivered to D D Marine in West Palm Beach FL on 2/22/1973
That is exactly the information that Boston Whaler recorded in their old ledgers. The information is not really "searchable", as it is hand-written and organized by stencil number and by hull length.

Inovermyhead wrote:Probably some of the best customer service I have ever experienced.
Boston Whaler has been performing like that for over 60-years. To hear they continue that type of support is good news.