HIN decoding Posted by: Frank81 on Oct-22-12 1:53 PM (EST)
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.