How do you find your hull number as in the 2 digit #xx ?

Short answer - the last 2 digits are the year built or the model year.

I hope some may find the longer answer below interesting or useful. If anyone is still reading by then, why I needed to know this is best explained at the end.

For civilian craft manufactured in the U.S., the hull number is given to the vessel when it is built to uniquely identify the vessel and is permanently affixed to the hull in at least two places. A Hull Identification Number (HIN) is a unique set of 12 characters, similar to the VIN found on automobiles.
This HIN format is as follows: The first three characters consist of the Manufacturers Index Code and should only be letters. The following five characters are the unique serial number assigned by the Manufacturer, and can be a series of letters and/or numbers with the exception of the letters O, I, and Q (as they can be easily mistaken). The last four characters determine the model and certification year of the boat.

The European system is descended from the American system, but it is a little different. In Europe, Hull Identification Numbers are a fourteen-digit alphanumeric identifier.
The first 2 letters are the country code, followed by the 3-letter MIC, 5-number series number, a letter and number denoting the month and year that the keel was laid, and the last 2 numbers being the model year.

Oddly, the HIN on my 1988 Nauticat 33 was a series of 13 letters and numbers. The “SLT” at the beginning identifies the manufacturer as the Finnish boat builder. The next 4 numbers show my hull as being the 1,072nd built. The next 4 places - “J889” indicate that the keel was laid in September 1988, and the vessel completed in 1989.

Why the above mattered to me:
Upon registering the boat in my home state, I discovered that Michigan could only record 12 spaces - not the standard European 14, and certainly not my odd duck hybrid 13. So instead of cutting off the last number, the Secretary of State’s office drops of 1st letter of the MIC.
Thus my state registered number, the boat’s documented number, and the HIN etched into the hull (a picture of which was included in my survey), were different. The insurance company, my lender, its loan servicing agent, and the State of Michigan were in disagreement, and none would change anything.
A version of the above was first prepared to help explain the source of the confusion. It was all finally sorted out only after months of being told by various representatives of each bureaucracy that I was either not registered, uninsured, or in default under my loan.
Hopefully no one still reading will ever need to know this. But if you do find yourself similarly situated, I’d be happy to commiserate, as well as share my experience in resolving the impasse.
- Bruce
Laughter and and Forgetting
1989 Nauticat 33
Detroit, Michigan



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Wow, Bruce, you've been through bureaucratic hell and back. Why didn't you just get USGC documented? On the west coast USGC documented boats are not required to also register locally, how about for Michigan?

My Nauticat 39 full number engraved on the hull is 39042I798 (Nauticat call this full number the boat's CIN)

Read as 39 / 042 / I7 / 98

39 is the model Nauticat 39
042 is the hull number
I7 (letter I, number 7) means the hull was laminated in November 1997
98 is the year 1998

I obtained this information directly from Tuula Gustafsson (from the Nauticat yard) in 2014.

I have an 83 NC43 with the HIN# SLT430200783 so I assume this is hull #20 built July 1983.  I got the HIN from the USCG documentation but I can't find it on the hull.  Where is yours?