TOPIC: Starcraft serial numbers

Hello All,

Been around vintage boats for quite some time. I finally decided to register with this site. All of my previous history with boats have been offshore boats and yachts of the 1970s. I currently have a 1978 Stamas V21 Apollo cabin cruiser. I recently decided to get a smaller, more easily used boat for the smaller lakes. I like the lines and style of the vintage. I recently purchased a 1960s era StarCraft Arrow. It has a newer Tohatsu motor, which will be replaced with a more period correct motor. The current motor has about 200 hours. The question arises as to what would have originally came on it? I have it currently registered, but the registration shows it as a 1901! That is what the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries put since the boat predates the HIN requirement. I know it is really from the '60s, but not sure as to exactly what year. Was there ever a serial number on it? If so, where would it have been? I have tried tracking down the history of the boat to no avail.

wisond,

WELCOME ABOARD!!! = Sorry that I cannot help with the StarCraft serial numbers.
(Fyi, I've been trying, without success, to find similar information on serial numbers by year for TEXAS MAID boats.)

yours, satx

Wilsond welcome aboard and glad to have you here. I'm guessing it probably didn't have one but that's only a guess as I don't know the StarCrafts that well. I know my Wagemaker is a 1960 and they didn't use serial numbers for theirs. As far as the motor goes, boats didn't generally come with a set brand of motor. It could have been anything really. The most popular were the Johnson/Evinrude and Mercury. I'll let others smarter than me jump in here but it's really up to you what you'd like to put on it. The JohnnyRudes are about the easiest to work on but the Merc's generally have a little more power. I can't speak for the Gales, Homelite etc..

Bob

There are no serial numbers on early Starcrafts, at least not originally from the factory. Look thru the info in the library for SCs, the 1963 brochure lists a 14ft fiberglass Arrow that has a 45hp max capacity.



Take a look around, lots of great info can be found in the library and forum threads.............

Your boat more than likely did not have a serial number. Hull ID numbers were not required until 1972, but for a few years prior to that there was a voluntary BIA (Boating Industry Association, now the National Marine Manufacturers Assoc) but only BIA members followed it.

Some manufacturers assigned their own serial numbers to boats but when you realize that on average there are about 4000 boat builders in USA annually, the ones who did were few and far between.

States can assign an HIN to an old boat. Not all do but they can. If they do the first three letters represent the state, not the manufacturer and the last four are usually the year it was built. But the last four can vary from state to state. Anyway, the 1901 may seem odd but really means nothing. They didn't know what to put down. You might try to get them to correct it, but it's up to them. And, it bears little relationship to the boat's value. anyone with half a brain is going to know it wasn't made in 1901.