How Old Is My Boston Whaler SPORT 13?

A conversation among Whalers
Bikesrfun
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:58 pm

How Old Is My Boston Whaler SPORT 13?

Postby Bikesrfun » Sat Oct 01, 2022 1:00 pm

I have a SPORT 13. I want advice about the MODEL YEAR. HIN is BWC1245M84H. The stenciled number is 2C9550

[In some state this boat has been] registered as an 1984, and the HIN confirms that.

The transom is only a 15-inch-height transom, and this makes me doubt the model year is 1985.

The HIN is missing a character that I cannot see.

HIN_.jpg
Fig. 1. The HIN, which appears to read as BWC1245M84H.
HIN_.jpg (8.22 KiB) Viewed 2463 times


StencilNumber.jpg
Fig. 2. The stencil number, which appears to read 2C9550.
StencilNumber.jpg (6.38 KiB) Viewed 2462 times


[Inferred question]
Q1: what is the actual model year of this SPORT 13?

Fig3a.jpg
Fig. 3. A view of the boat with automobile tires and other crap in the cockpit. The only element in this image that can identify a production epoch is the presence of the sink splash well. For help in dating this hull see the REFERENCE article comments about when the sink splash well appeard.
Fig3a.jpg (28.47 KiB) Viewed 2442 times
Fig4a.jpg
Fig. 4. A view of the stern showing a notched transom, usually indicative of a 15-inch-shaft height transom. The engine, however, looks like a 20-inch shaft engine.
Fig4a.jpg (28.1 KiB) Viewed 2442 times
Fig5a.jpg
Fig.5. A side view of the hull which does not help with identification of the model year.
Fig5a.jpg (16.75 KiB) Viewed 2442 times

jimh
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Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:25 pm
Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
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Re:How Old Is My Boston Whaler SPORT 13?

Postby jimh » Sat Oct 01, 2022 5:32 pm

I enhanced your image of the HIN to better show the actual embossed numbers.

HINwithExposureCompensation.jpg
Fig. 3. The HIN with some exposure compensation.
HINwithExposureCompensation.jpg (15.03 KiB) Viewed 2459 times


In this picture I see no trace of the MIC for Boston Whaler: BWC

In this picture I only see the four characters 1245 where the five character production code would normally be.

I see the character M indicating the HIN is formatted in the model year format.

Following those characters I see 84H.

Consult the FAQ for help in decoding this HIN.

My tentative interpretation: the boat is an authentic Boston Whaler boat. So we can assume there was a prefixed MIC of BWC. THis mades the HIN read

BWC[Missing character]1245M84H

Now I can interpret this HIN as follows:

BWC (assumed) = MIC for Boston Whaler
1245 = partial production code. The production code requires five characters
M = model year format is in use here
84 = the model year of the hull
H = the month of production, where H means MARCH

Thus from the HIN we know this is a 1984-model-yearboat made by Boston Whaler in March 1984.

Turning to the stencil number of 2C9550, this number is appropriate for a 13-foot hull.

See the FAQ and the 13-foot article in the REFERENCE section.

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

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/refer ... quence.pdf

The above will suggest that a 13-footer HIN would have a letter character followed by four digits as the production sequence number.

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/13/

The model-year HIN format was only used until August 1984, so this also fits nicely with the interpretation of the HIN being in the model-year format

jimh
Posts: 11674
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:25 pm
Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
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Re: How Old Is My Boston Whaler SPORT 13?

Postby jimh » Sat Oct 01, 2022 5:54 pm

Regarding the transom height appearing to be only 15-inches, this could have been modified by a prior owner. Or, perhaps there was custom order for a short-shaft transom.

Regarding the blue interior color, this also could have been modified by a prior owner. Note that the actual transom in the vicinity of the stenciled number has white gel coat. That would be appropriate for a 1984 model year hull.

Also note in Figure 3 above you can see a white gel coat area around the bow anchor hatch. This is a further indication that the blue color of the deck is not the original gel coat color but is probably a sloppy paint job that is wearing away in areas with a lot of traffic or abrasion.

The portion of the hull that would be most useful in identification of the production epoch is the bow area as seen from head on. Unfortunately none of the images uploaded show any details of the bow area as seen from head on. For more about the change in the bow area of the 13-foot hull read the REFERENCE article (which was linked above) regarding the transition to the smirked-bow which occurred in the 1970's. The sink-style engine splash well also dates the production of the boat to be at least after c.1971.