A30 Numbers

What number is that Alberg 30?

Do you mean the hull number, the sail number, the manufacturer's serial number or the Coast Guard HIN? Or maybe you mean the Coast Guard documentation number (which you can look up) or other government registration number?

The hull number and sail number are pretty much synonymous, but there are some wrinkles. On some early boats, the same sail number was assigned to two boats with a "US" prefix for the boat sent to the United States and a "KC" prefix for the boat staying in Canada. I'm not sure how these numbers relate to the hull number.

Other boats do not use the class sail number. Usually this is because they race (or did race) under PHRF rules and use the number assigned by the local PHRF organization. In other cases, the number is just plain wrong, usually because the sail was purchased second-hand and the number was never changed.

The manufacturer's serial number is found on the builder's plate fastened to the exterior bulkhead just below the companionway and above the bridge deck. The normal format of this number is a two-digit length ("30"), a two-digit year of manufacture, and a three-digit hull number. Some boats have these elements in a different order, however.

U.S. federal law has required a Hull Identification Number (HIN) on all boats manufactured or imported after November 1, 1972. On the Alberg 30, this is number impressed into the upper starboard corner of the transom. This 12-character number starts with a 3-letter Manufacturer Id Code (MIC). For the Alberg 30, this is either WBW or ZWB. This is followed by a 5-character serial number. On an Alberg 30, this should be "30" and the 3-digit hull number. This hull number should match the one on the builder's plate, but they don't always do so. Finally, the date of manufacture is indicated with a 2-digit month and 2-digit year. Note there are other variations on the HIN numbering scheme, but I've not seen them on an Alberg 30.

Year of manufacture

I'm trying to determine the manufacturing year for each hull number. My data is so far incomplete, but this is what I've got:

Hull Number

Year Built Low High

1963 US11

1964 30 57

1965 63 123

1966 138 201

1967 210 284

1968 294 326

1969 359 401

1970 411 441

1971 458 490

1972 491 521

1973 526 550

1974 555 568

1975 590 596

1976 598 610

1977 612

1978

1979

1980 645

Brief Histories of Boats

Bob Kirk (with some formatting help from Mike Meinhold) has compiled a spreadsheet of the histories, as he has been able to determine, of boats by boat number. You can download this spreadsheet to view it. Please let Bob know if you have any further information, or corrections, to the data in this spreadsheet.

Note: if you don't have Microsoft Excel, you might want to download Microsoft's Excel Viewer or OpenOffice, a free office suite that can read most Microsoft Office files.

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Last modified: Tuesday 09-Mar-2010