How to Find a Used Sailboat Part Two

How to Find a Used Sailboat Part Two

First things first . . . decode the Hull Identification Number (HIN). While the HIN does not provide a lot of data, it is critical starting point because you get the manufacturer and year/month the sailboat was made.

HIN Location

Typically they are on the transom starboard side up high.

Transom molded in HIN

Early in my search for a 20+ foot sailboat, I ran across what I thought was a deal on a 20' Hunter sailboat with trailer. The price was about $1,500 on Craigslist and I was excited! I asked the seller for the Hull Identification Number (HIN) and he sent me a photo of the number HUN20022M83E.

Hull Identification numbers started to be mandatory in the USA as of November 1, 1972. From November 1, 1972 to July of 1984 the HIN numbers are two formats - Straight and Model Year.

EARLY HIN TYPES, November 1, 1972 through July 30, 1984

The manufacturer had the option of giving either the model year or date of manufacture. As with cars, a model year can be several months different from the date of manufacture.

A. Straight date HIN: Example: ABC123451272 (December, 1972)

The first three characters are the manufacturer's code.

The next five digits are the serial number

The 9th and 10th characters give the month and the 11th and 12th characters denote the year of manufacture.

B. Model Year HIN: Example: HUN20022M83E

The first three characters are the manufacturer's code.

HUN is for the Hunter Marine Corporation. 

The next five digits are the serial number

20022

The 9th digit is an "M", which stands for model year.

The 10th and 11th characters are numeric and denote the model year (1983).

The 12th and final digit gives the month of manufacture using letters of the alphabet (December).

Hull Identification Number Overview

Here is a video that will give this information overview in a visual format.

Because some months have the same beginning letters (March and May, January, June and July) it is understandable that one can't use the first letter of each month, so inventors of the system decided to use letters of the alphabet consecutively (A through L). Here comes the stupid part! "A" stands for August, but not because the month's name begins with an "A". The government officials simply decided to start lettering months with August and end with July! In order to figure out your HIN you may need to check the following chart:

A=August, B=September, C=October, D=November, E=December,

F=January, G=February, H=March, I=April, J=May, K=June, L=July

NEW HIN, August 1, 1984 through present

If the 9th character in a HIN is an "M" or a number, it is a pre-August 1984 boat.

The 9th character now designates the month of manufacture in alphabetical form, but the sequence is now logical A= January and L= December .

The 10th character is now the confusing one. It designates the year of manufacture, but gives only the last digit. This must be interpreted by the final two characters, which designate the model year. If the last four digits are J900, the boat is a 2000 model built in October, 1999. If the last four digits are G000, the boat is a 2000 model built in July, 2000.

Individuals building boats for their own use and not to sell must obtain a 12 character HIN from their State. The Manufacturer Identification Code at the beginning of the HIN for a "home built" boat is an abbreviation for the State followed by a "Z" which indicates that it is a State identification.

Some manufacturers add additional information after the HIN, such as -21 to indicate that the craft is a 21-foot model.

After Decoding the HIN - Now What?

Once you have the manufacturer, serial number and date of manufacture, you can investigate to see if the company is still in business, if they are not does anyone support the sailboat specific parts, and if there are websites or Facebook groups that are focused on this type of sailboat.

When I researched this particular Hunter sailboat (Hunter 20) circa 1983, I found that there were Facebook groups that provided insight into the sailboat. 

In the case of the Hunter 20, the seller bought the sailboat on the Facebook marketplace, did not get a title (did not know), and had no sailboat experience. The sailboat was a wreck: trailer was rusted and broken, the mast was missing, the boom was missing, there was only a smattering of standing rigging, no outboard motor, the centerboard and rudder were damaged, and there were no sails or running rigging. The seller was asking $1,500 as is and told me that similar Hunter 20 boats were selling for over $5,000 online. He was nearly correct, sail ready Hunter 20 boats were selling for about $5,000 but had everything that he was missing!

I did a rough cost estimate to get the boat sail worthy and it was going to cost me nearly $3,000 to $4,000 in parts doing my own work (labor). After discussing with the seller, who was willing to go down to $600, I made a good choice and walked away. As my wife said I could buy a complete boat for that amount of money.