Can anyone help. I have this canoe with HIN SVEV8003M81C.I would like to know the make and any other info. Thank You
Sovie Performance boats?
http://www.uscgboating.org/recalls/mic1.aspx?sort=mic
but the C at the end does not make sense to me.
company out of business
But there is some contact info on this link that you might use to try to contact the former owner/builder Robert Sovie: http://boat-manufacturers.findthebest.com/l/11955/Sovie-Performance-Boats
For this style of HIN the first 3 characters (SVE) are the manufacturer identification code. The next 5 characters (V8003) were used at the discretion of the builder and could identify the model and serial number, but you might need to contact the builder to find out what they mean. The next character (M) indicates “model year format” and is fixed. The next 2 characters (81) indicate year of manufacture (1981) and the last character © indicates month of manufacture (October).
So you have a Sovie Performance boat built in Oct 1981. If you can’t locate Robert Sovie, you might try a search of “Sovie Performance Boats”.
HIN decoding
HIN’s are not as standardized as road vehicle VIN’s under ISO, so the only info you can get here is the manufacturer and year/month.
81C means it was built in March, 1981. They changed HINS up in the mid 80’s and now the month letter is before the model year.
The first 3 letters = manufacturer code for both the old and new HIN system. SVE is currently assigned to Sovie Performance Boats per the Coast Guard website, but it also says they have only been in business since 1992. The company I work for has been around since the 70’s and that db lists the date we were last acquired, and they don’t normally recycle so its a good educated guess but someone with more knowledge may want to chime in (I work in the marine industry but am new to canoes).
Everything else in the middle of the HIN is internal serial number, which is meaningless to the public.
model year format
Not that it matters much, but the “M” character indicates that this particular HIN follows the “model year” format in which the months were assigned letters starting with “A” for August, not January.
You can read more about HIN formats here: http://www.pcmarinesurveys.com/whats%20a%20hin%20marine%20survey%20surveyor%20mississauga.htm
Ah hah
Learn something new every day. When I have to deal with a boat that old at work, I generally try to find a way to make it disappear quickly.