misnumbered hull??

The mar/april 2006 issue of Hotline shows the sail designs for the 18 through the years. I bought a new H18 in 1986 with the hull number showing the last numbers as 86.The Hotline article shows that my sail design (nationals yellow) was only available in 84 and 85.Does this mean that the dealer put 86 0n the hull of an 85 boat? (the dealer is no longer in business.) Any thoughts? PS The hull number is the same as the sail number. thanks,DJ

Probably not. The nationals were trditionally held in the fall, at the end of the sailing season. The boat model year started in August.

So the boat could have an 1986 hull number with a sail that was available in 1985.

the number right before the 86 should be a 5 if it was made in 85.

_________________
1992 Hobie Cat 18 #16943
Hobie Fleet 198, Rapid City, SD

Not on the numbering scheme used at the time. The last four characters of the HIN are probably M86A or M86B (A=August, B=September)

His hull number is probably like this: CCMH[4 digits]M86A

H - Hobie 18 model
[4 digits] - serial number
M86A - manufactured in the 1st month of the 86 model year (August 1985)

Pretty sure we went to the current system earlier in the 80's

If the "Bow" numbers match the sail... it was an event boat with matching mainsail.

Sail numbers are not matched to a boat's serial number. It is very common for a dealer to have a variety of sails to mix and match with hulls.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

The switchover to the new numbering system was right about that time ('85 / '86). I had an '84 16 with the old system and an '87 17 with the newer.

If my sail number matches my hull serial number on my '88 21 SE, does that make it an event boat? I don't know if this even matters, but curious.

Every 21SE was built like an event boat with Bow numbers, so the sails had to match. They likey kept this straight by also matching the hull serial number.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

I was a dealer in the '80s. I doubt the hull number was changed. We typically bought boats then in truckloads of 18 and it was common practice to order all the available sails and maybe a few colored hulls, or all white like I did, and sell the color sail that the customer wanted. There was no correlation between hull number and sail number except on 21s and even on 21s the last digits on the hull were the year.