HIN re-numbered yacht. Is it legal?

that wasn't a real question was it!

Is this a production boat?

I'd say your friend should contact a surveyor and an attorney right away.

The USCG assigns a HIN to a vessel and that is it. On custom boats I have seen 2 or 4 years difference in the year noted as the build year and the model year. I have also seen 3 years difference in those numbers on a motor yacht that was just started when a fire burnt the production facility down.

I have also seen 1984 TV's installed into a 2000 motor yacht

Was it sold as a 2011 boat? If so, something smells fishy. I would be on the phone to the manufacturer right away. This could be something that a dealer did that they are not aware of.

But either way I'd want some real good answers right away.

Depending on the circumstances it could be legal for the manufacturer to do this. If the boat was partially built and never completed, and sat in the factory un-used for a period of time. I believe only a certain percentage of the boat has to be finished in the year that it is finished. I have seen in other boats equipment that was much older then the year that was built. I have seen engines that were 2 years older then when the boat was finished because they were ordered for a different hull, then it was changed and they sat new in the factory for 2 years before finding a customer that wanted MTU instead of CAT, same with zubzero's that were 4 years older. I've also seen large builders take large deliveries of hose and such, then things slow down, they close the plant for 6 months, have 30% of the orders they did and it takes them 3 years to go through the same amount of hose they used to use in 4 months.

I have also seen where a factory re-HIN-ed a boat.

Think about it this way. Suppose it was a custom built sportfish that normally takes 2 years to build. But the builder started on it in 2007, then waited 6 months on some payment and switched over to someone else's hull, then went back to the 1st hull, by that time the customer made some changed which then delayed the build even further.......if it was totally finished in 2011, should it be branded a 2007 or a 2011, the year it was completed and saw daylight outside of the factory? This might have been a new model, that they had no customer for and they started building it on spec, then when the economy happened and money got tight they stopped work on it until they could afford to finish it.......There are many scenario's, but I believe it is indeed legal.

I understand and have seen what you are talking about before on custom boats. But 5 years on a production boat!?

That is an is a very long time for a production boat to sit around unsold. And then be renumbered and sold as "new".

As the buyer I would expect to be told that up front. And I would expect to a large discount on the 2011 price.

While the practice may be legal, there most be a cut off point. I can't believe you can go back as far as you want and renumber/year a boat that hasn't sold and sell it as new.

there usually is another place hidden away beside the transom that has the original hull number the manufacturer should be able to tell you the location. It may as simple as a index card with the number written on it embeded in the resin .

Let's slow down here. A guy spends $4Million, thats $4,000,000. Takes delivery of his new baby and then notices things don't look right? No one notices the numbers have been ground out? No one notices cracked hoses? No one hires a surveyor or Captain to sea trial the yacht before the money is plunked down? No one surveys the hull. What production sportfish boats are there that aren't from reputable manufacturers who, if something like this occurred wouldn't point it out to a prospective buyer to avoid problems? This isn't a $500 used car lot! What about the engine warranties from years old engines? Wouldn't the engines models themselves most likely be outdated? I do not beleive this is a legitimate post.

What you are talking about is indeed illegal "hasn't been sold" and renumbering a boat that was completed. What I am talking about, is a boat that was in the factory that "was never completed". Hell, maybe it took 4 years to build this particular boat. If the hull was inside, at the factory, never left the factory, regardless of how long it takes them to build the complete boat, the year is the year it was completed no? The engines, whether they are 2006 or 2011, still have the manufacturers full warranty. Maybe the factory got taken over by someone else and this hull got forgotten in another shed or something. I don't know.

Maybe it was built in Miami and they were waiting for the coring to gas off before finishing it so it took several years before they could actually finish the boat due to production delays?

I can see it honestly happening. If it's a "brand new" model and hull #1. They advertise it, someone orders hull #1, when it's finished his dealer gives him a phone call to come pick it up....... The boat has manufacturers warranty, so you don't have to survey it and a lot of buyer's don't. They figure it's a brand new model, so it must be a new build, and said Captain delivers the boat. A few weeks go by, then someone starts really looking at things........ A lot of times the hoses are routed, so the dates are on the inside and you'd have to really look at the hoses to see the dates on them, as it's cleaner looking to route them this way. The engines have manufacturer's warranty from the in-service date (the day owner #1 takes delivery).

I ran a boat with series 60 MTU's and twin disc V-drives......the motors were made in 2005, the twin disc v-drives 3/2003 (they came as a package from DD/mtu), had warranty issues with both v-drives and DD/MTU covered it but twin disc would not it had to go through DD........ all this was in a boat that was a 2006 and delivered from the factory in 2007. It also had all subzero appliances manufactured in 2002 and is a production builder that's pretty well recognized.

The uscg doesn't care if it takes 3 years to finish a boat or if the engines that were installed were built 3 years earlier... But they sure do require permission for a builder to change the HIN on a boat. And from what I ve heard theyv'e pretty strict about that and do not grant permission unless there is a good reason

I don't believe a builder is required to apply the HIN when the boat is started so I dint see why they would knowing that it may take a while to complete a complex large build

Something is fishy there, the owner should check with the uscg about the validity of the HIN. I also have to ask who buys a 4M boat without a survey!! The surveyor should have noticed something wasn't right

I can buy all that for a custom or semi-custom boat. But for a boat built by a major production manufacturer, it's a hard sell.

Captn J

No disrespect intended.

"They advertise it, someone orders hull #1, when it's finished his dealer gives him a phone call to come pick it up"

How many people wait for a phone call to see thier new $4,000,000 boat, and not make some changes as it is being completed in person? Or hire thier own build Captain? This is not a Searay.

Something not right here! There is more to the story we do not know.

It is a production boat which is just like a searay. Most production builders will only allow options on the option sheet and that is it! Most production boats are bought after they are built, finished, and delivered to the dealer, so who has a build captain supervise a production sportfish???

Actually I can see one instance this could be valid. It's a brand new model destined to replace an earlier design in the same size or similar size. They start on the new model and layup the hull, machinery, in the meantime they get a number of orders for the old hull/design before the factory let out word they were redesigning it. So, they set the new model aside and build the old model orders that came in that they have deposits on and such, and more orders keep coming in and everyone seems to really like the old model, so they set the new design aside for 4 or 5 years until they finally finish it and sell it as hull #1 and discontinue the old design.

In 2006 Viking built a few 61' vikings on the same line and in between the new 64's that replaced the discontinued 61 because they still had orders for them to finish or build even though the 61 was discontinued. So you had a few 2006 61's built even though 2005 officially was the last model year for the 61'. I ran one for a trip called "triple net" which was a 2006 61' with mezzanine deck.

That Viking story is apples to oranges to the one we are being told here.

If this story is true, something sure sounds fishy.

Do you happen to have a picture of the altered HIN #?