Not a HIN

Posted By: Greg CM26 Seattle CLM005771173
Date: 1/13/08 8:38a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: hull number (jerry moore)

Hi Jerry, I'm afraid the number you supplied is not a Hull Identification Number. All states issue registration numbers for boats, cars, airplanes, whatever. That's a very different thing from the HIN, which is issued by the manufacturer. Boats were not required to have a HIN until November 1, 1972. There is a prescribed format that makes all HINs uniform in the information encoded. Click on the link under the picture below for more information about the HIN requirements. The boats that Clipper Marine built before a uniform HIN was mandated carried serial numbers, and some had a version of HIN that was Clipper's own invention (see the photo I posted earlier in this thread). The early boats also were labeled with a hull number (probably refered to the particular mold used) and a "Stripe" number, about which I know nothing, other than seeing "Stripe 504" on one boat and "Stripe 540" on another. In any event, as the link below describes, your HIN, if you have one, will be 12 characters, beginning with "CLM" (for Clipper Marine, the manufacturer's code). Years after Clipper went under, the code "CLM" was assigned to a different company, Classic Marine, so their HINs also begin with those letters, but, according to them, that's the only connection the two companies share. All boats that were required to have a HIN will have that number displayed somewhere on the starboard transom. The theory is that anyone should be able to approach any boat and determine the HIN of that boat easily, the same way that more modern cars have their VIN posted on the driver's side dashboard where anyone can see them. Some of the CM26s that were built with official HINs shortly after the rule went into effect violated the location requirement (I don't know if maybe that was added later), and had the HIN down near the waterline on the starboard transom (my CM26, #577, is an example of this). I don't know if that happened with the CM21. The majority of CM21s do not have the federal HIN. The earliest 21 carrying a HIN that I'm aware of is CLM008921072, which is serial number 892 out of roughly 1290 built. If your boat is actually serial number 38, as the sail number suggests, it was built long before the HIN was mandated. But it should still have a serial number, probably similar to the photo I showed earlier in this thread. It's probably somewhere on the interior transom, and may have been painted over. There was a discussion here about that location about 4 or 5 years ago, and the serial number might also appear somewhere back there on the underside of the deck, on the port side, if I remember correctly. Anyway, thanks for staying with it. Maybe you will be able to contribute to finding out what a "Stripe" number is. Greg