Build dates

[Thorfast]

Someone on a boating fb page is asking for help establishing when a boat they are hoping to buy was built. The broker gives one date but CRT are saying it was registered many years earlier.

 

This made me think.

If a boat hull is fabricated one year, but it is not fully fitted out and used until, say 5 years later, when was the boat 'built'?

When the steel hull was fabricated?

When the fit out was completed?

When it first went into the water?

When it was first licenced?

 

Opinions........

[WotEver]

I guess it entirely depends on what you mean by 'built', and why you care.

 

Arguably the boat was built when the hull was completed. It floats, it's a boat. However, it's probably not usable, so we come back to what your definition of 'built' is

 

If your reason for wanting the build date is wear and tear, then maybe it was when the fitout was completed. (Are they ever complete?)

[Alan de Enfield]

I would suggest you can discount the 'registration/licence' as the build date as the boats that require registering/licensing in UK waters are a very small minority - if the registration/licence date was to be the 'build date', then, there would be 10's of thousands still to be 'built'

 

I would suggest 'completed fit out' would be the most reasonable date to use.

 

The RCD uses the 'first time it is placed on the market' , ie, offered for sale, or, the 1st time it 'gets it bum wet'.

Edited February 8, 2017 by Alan de Enfield

[alan_fincher]

Either I'm missing the point, or........

 

Surely if CRT are saying it was registered a lot earlier than the broker is giving for a build date, then (assuming CRT are not in error) that can only be because of a date it was first registered with them or their predecessors BW. Nobody would license a boat with CRT unless it was put in water and floating, so if the CRT date is correct that was the date at which the hull first started any deterioration by being in water.

When the boat was completed in terms of fit-out will not affect the fact that the hull is that old.

Treat it as a boat thats been afloat for at least as long as CRT has records, and assume broker is being economical with the truth!

What year is the broker saying, and what do CRT say? In fact, what is its CRT index number?

[Chewbacka]

Is the boat CE marked?? If so the HIN/CIN (the hull identification number) should contain the year of build. A least one builder does not fully comply with the ISO standard, so finding the year code may be confusing, but the first few characters will be the builders code. Google this and you will know who built the boat and you can ask them when.

 

Added

http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/hin.htm

http://britishmarine.co.uk/Services/Business-Support/Technical-Support/Manufacturers-Identity-Code-MIC

 

I can not find the list of codes used by manufacturers, but the British Marine Federation keep the register so should be able to tell you the manufacturer from your HIN/CIN

Edited February 8, 2017 by Chewbacka

[GUMPY]

Loddon has a 1993 BW plate, previous owner said it was 1997, he queried it with the broker and was told it was launced as a shell in 93 and finished fitout in 97. 4 years for a company to fit a boat? I don't think so.

To me its a 1993 boat that's it.

Both Idleness and Parglena were the opposite, having both spent 4-5 years on non BW waters before their BW registration.

 

If the BW date is earlier then that is the date it was launched/built

[Detling]

To add to the confusion my hull was built in 2006 moved by lorry to a boatyard sat on shore being fitted out until builder went bust then completed in 2008 and licensed in 2008. Hull did not get wet till 2008 but was welded in 2006 so how old is it?

[Chewbacka]

To add to the confusion my hull was built in 2006 moved by lorry to a boatyard sat on shore being fitted out until builder went bust then completed in 2008 and licensed in 2008. Hull did not get wet till 2008 but was welded in 2006 so how old is it?

I would say 2006. If you stripped out the hull and did a complete refit it would still be 2006 boat though refitted.

[David Mack]

So what about a narrow boat originally built for carrying as horse drawn, with rivetted iron sides, elm bottoms and a wooden back cabin. Later chopped in half, new welded steel motor stern added, welded steel bottoms and replaced footings, new steel full length cabin, relatively modern engine fitted.

 

All that is left of the original is the upper hull sides over 2/3 of the boat length. What is the build date?

[Ally]

I would suggest you can discount the 'registration/licence' as the build date as the boats that require registering/licensing in UK waters are a very small minority - if the registration/licence date was to be the 'build date', then, there would be 10's of thousands still to be 'built'

 

I would suggest 'completed fit out' would be the most reasonable date to use.

 

The RCD uses the 'first time it is placed on the market' , ie, offered for sale, or, the 1st time it 'gets it bum wet'.

The RCD CIN number is made up of the country, builders code, letters of choice, build date (usually interpreted as launch month & year, plus the design date, which could potentially predate the build date by some matter of time, so can cause some confusion of course. Edited February 9, 2017 by Ally

[Chewbacka]

So what about a narrow boat originally built for carrying as horse drawn, with rivetted iron sides, elm bottoms and a wooden back cabin. Later chopped in half, new welded steel motor stern added, welded steel bottoms and replaced footings, new steel full length cabin, relatively modern engine fitted.

 

All that is left of the original is the upper hull sides over 2/3 of the boat length. What is the build date?

You would only do this as a restoration, if you wanted a new boat there is no point using a few bits of scrap.

So how much can be replaced before it stops being a restored original and becomes a replica of an old boat. I have no idea.

[WotEver]

Now we're getting into the realm of Trigger's broom.

 

[Chewbacka]

Now we're getting into the realm of Trigger's broom.

 

 

I wanted to mention that in my post but I could not remember the TV programme. It used to take me seconds to remember things like that, then an hour or so, but these days it will be sometime tomorrow - just too late.

[system 4-50]

I wanted to mention that in my post but I could not remember the TV programme. It used to take me seconds to remember things like that, then an hour or so, but these days it will be sometime tomorrow - just too late.

Me too. It gets slower and slower. But there is a plus side, I can eventually remember things that never happened...