I bought a used Necky kayak. Owner only had it for 3 months. There is a decal on the hull saying the model is Arluk III. It’s thin, fast, and long. It’s pretty old, and there is a serial number near the rudder but it looks like it was etched in by hand with a knife and not at the factory as the letters/numbers are not straight. It says NEC146A89. I am guessing this indicates it was made in 1989? What do the other parts mean?
It is in good shape but looks like it could be that old. Is there somewhere inside the hull an official serial number would be? Trying to understand why there is this one on the outside that looks like it was done by hand, scratched into the gelcoat.
Yes the last 2 digits are the year of manufacture. I have no idea about the 146A. Probably a combination of model and numerical place of manufacturer in the year 1989, but that’s just a guess.
First three letters are USCG assigned id (NEC - Necky Kayaks). Next 5 are the factory’s own ID number for the specific boat, in whatever significance they wanted to apply. The last four letters and numbers are the manufacturer month in alpha form (A=January, B= February, etc, etc, etc) along with the actual manufacturing year, and the last two are the model year of the boat.
So NEC12345J889 , for ex, would be a Necky boat manufactured October, 1998 for the 1989 model year.
My 1999 Necky Arluk 1.9 has no serial number. Canadian built. On the sales slip they started to write in the serial number, but it is blank. Somebody was asleep when it went out the door.
In theory the lifetime warranty is still backed by Johnson Outdoors, but they have no parts.