New HIN????

[daveo]

I live in Washington and received a letter from the state, that my Hull Identification Number for our dinghy, does not meet federal standards. I went to West Marine (where we bought our dinghy) and asked if they had little metal plates I could put my new HIN on. The lady said she got the same letter for her dinghy and boat. Has anyone else gotten the letter? Seems like a lot of trouble for a dinghy that spends 99% of the time, out of the water.
Daveo

 

[Larry H]

I received the same letter about my trawler. When I checked my title, I found that the HIN on the title was missing the last digit. I printed a photo of the HIN number and took it and the title to a licensing agent. The agent processed a correction to the title so I avoided having to install a new HIN number.

Check the HIN on your dingy against the title or registration to see if it was printed correctly on the title. The HIN must be 12 digits long. If the number on the boat seems correct, take a photo, print it and take it to your licensing agent.

I do have a Livingston dingy that had a damaged HIN on the transom. Someone had drilled thru the number. I did have to get a new number for that boat. The licensing agent gave me a paper with the requirements for installing the new number. The agent said I could engrave the new number into the fiberglass using the same type of vibrating engraver tool that is used on metal.

Larry H