All vessels manufactured in the United States after November 1, 1972 are required to have a twelve (12) character hull identification number which must be formatted according to the charts shown below. Format depends on the Year.![]()
The most common mistake we see here is confusing the letter i (eye) with the number one (1) at the ninth position in the HIN. Or 8 and B at the last character...
New Format
Mandatory - August 1, 1984
Manufacturers
Identification CodeProduction
or Serial Number*Month
of Production (position 9)Year
of ProductionModel
YearABC 12345 A 7 88 * A - January D - April G - July J - October
B - February E - May H - August K - November
C - March F - June I - September L - December
Straight Year Format
November 1, 1972
Manufacturers
Identification CodeProduction
or Serial NumberMonth
of ProductionYear
of ProductionABC 12345 12 75
Model Year Format
Optional - November 1, 1972
Manufacturers
Identification CodeProduction
or Serial Number'M' Indicates Model
Year FormatModel
Year*Production
MonthABC 12345 M 75 A * A - August D - November G - February J - May
B - September E - December H - March K - June
C - October F - January I - April L - July
There was no standard format before November 1, 1972. Boat-Alert.com does not search older boats.
Sometimes, the HIN is prefixed by the country code. For Example "US-" for the United states, "CN-" for Canada, and "FR-" for France. This can lead to a HIN that is 14 or 15 digits long. You can skip the country code when searching for a Boat-Alert HIN Search Report. On the other hand, if you have a 17 digits long HIN then it might be that you are looking at a Trailer VIN number.
If the HIN you have is shorter than 12 digits and does not match the above charts, consider that it might be a State Registration Number that you are looking at or the official number from the USCG. Look for the HIN on your title and on the transom.