Hunter sail numbers
After much consternation and consideration, I concluded the following as regards sail numbers.
If you want your boat's 'serial number' displayed on the sail, to reflect the age of the boat (no small matter of pride for many of us), you will have to use the following formula:
year + month + sequence number.
My boat's HIN is 'HUN25027M74HG'. These digits translate to:
HUN25 = model of boat;
027 = sequence number, for given production series;
M = HIN is given as model-year designation, meaning that the ending letter reflects the month in a series in which 'A' is August;
74 = model year of boat;
H or G (most people will have one letter here) = month of model year.
Thus Diana's *true* serial number (what goes on the sail) is '74 G 027', representing the 27th boat built in February 1974. By this formula, this is the ONLY way by which the sail number accurately and uniquely indicates the boat's actual place in the production series.
(Diana's apparently unique HIN having two letters at the end appears to indicate some confusion about whether she was cut in February or March. After I realized that there was no February 29th of that year, I've decided that she was built during the week in which March 1st was a Friday and someone in the mold shop manning the Dyno gun played a trick on us all.)
On a related note, does anyone with a mid-'70s boat still have the original (as designed by my dad) 'shadow' 'H' logo on the mainsail? Mine doesn't; but I am putting it back on.