Is it possible to trace a boats history by old River registration number?

[Sportsman]

Last autumn my Brother and i saved an old speedboat at a farm sale.We thought it looked interesting as it had a Dowty/Hamilton 2 stage marine jet fitted.Nine months of research later we've identified it as a Sportsman runabout by Bell Woodworking.Not a particularly noteworthy boat maybe but it is the same age as the jet unit and as the hull shape closely resembles that of the Dowty Turbocraft the jet unit should work okay in it.You can just make out an old registration type number on the hull, it's G10287. Does anyone know what or where that relates to? Is the make of boat or its name used when registering a boat? Don't know why it would have been used on a river because the jet units make a huge wake at low speeds,are there registration numbers on lakes? Sorry if any of this seems obvious but we usually restore classic cars and bikes,the boat was going to be something different to do.Any help would be appreciated but we do know about the history and development of the Jet unit.If anyone has any info on the Bell sportsman we'd love to hear it.

 

[Tranona]

Welcome to the forum.

Registration practice varies enormously around the country with the vast majority of boats having no registration at all, although some will be registered on the shipping register, but the common registry uses numbers starting with SSR. The type of boat you have is unlikely to have been on that register. Those authorities that do have registration, mainly lakes are unlikely to keep any historic records of ownership. Equally many older boats have no form of identification. Bell Woodworking went out of business years ago and their main line of business was sailing dinghies such as the Mirror range and the GP14. Many boats were built from kits, but sailing boats are usually identifiable through the sail number - although over the years there is no guarantee the sail actually belongs to the boat. Your boat may well have also been a DIY build.

Not a lot of help, but at least you know where the drive came from. Hamilton is a New Zealand company but from memory Dowty had the licence to build them in the UK. Not particularly successful venture as we lack the kind of environment that makes jets so popular in NZ (and certain parts of N america).

 

[Sportsman]

Thanks for that.The previous owner bought it about 20 years ago from the Huntingdon area,with the jet unit fitted.We know the hull and jet are the same age give or take a year but we don't know when it was fitted.There was a dead Ford Pinto that came with it but it looks like it once had a bigger inboard engine fitted judging but the marks left by previous mounting points.They were designed to take outboard or inboard engines according to the period brochure we have by Bell Woodworking.