serial number

David Anthony · Post by **David Anthony** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 10:42 am

Some place I remember seeing how to identify the year of the boat by the serial number on the transom, does anyone know where I saw that?

EmergencyExit · Post by **EmergencyExit** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:37 am

I formerly used
http://www.uscgboating.org/recalls/mic1.aspx

but recently noticed that "CBC" no longer results in Chrysler, but rather Cherokee Boat Company, haven't found a better on yet either..

Anybody Else ??

Alanhod · Post by **Alanhod** » Mon Sep 05, 2011 3:21 pm

I did a thread on this forum on this very subject. In it I gave the instructions someone posted here years ago for serial number ID info. You can use it to figure out just what your boat serial number breaks down into for manufacture date.

Here is the link...

viewtopic.php?t=2525&highlight=number

Scroll down the posting listed above to the P.S. at the bottom of my first post. Here you will find the break down for serial numbers on our boats.

Turns out several of our boats titles did not match the year we expected that is listed on our boat titles. My boat is legally a 1976, my serial number says it was built in July 1977.

We came up with lots of ideas why this would be. Popular thought is our boats were custom orders like mine in 1976 but not built and delivered till 1977. Totally guess work, no real evidence to back it up.

Thanks
Alan

Windward · Post by **Windward** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 3:13 am

The How To section of the Chrysler Sailing Association site at http://www.chryslersailing.com links to
http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/hin.html, which explains the structure and how to determine year. That page in turn links to the CG database that EE mentioned. I know of no other source of manufacturer identifiers.

Reuse of identifiers can cause major headaches in information management, particularly if the temporal aspect is not preserved (i.e. CBC meant Chrysler Boat Company from SomeDate until SomeOtherDate. From SomeOtherDate through the present, CBC indicates Cherokee Boat Company).

**EDIT: I noticed that at the bottom of the page at http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/hin.html, there's a link to grab an Excel, Access or XML version. I looked at the Excel version, and it includes columns for up to 5 companies, with the older ones generally being flagged as OOB (out of business). A few, including Chrysler and Texas Marine Int'l, include a date on which the business ended.