I completely agree MRC. Boats should be described by model year (the last 2 digits) not build year. I always do this - the boat I just sold was described by me as "2011" becuase it was a 2011 model year, 11 last 2 digits of HIN, 2011 spec, built during the period May 2010 to January 2011
Year of manufacture is widely used in industry to describe the age of equipment despite the fact that warranties usually start on date of first use and I don't see why boats should be any different. The date that the CE certificate was signed by the manufacturer is usually assumed to be the precise date that the equipment completed the manufacturing process and is also the date used to determine the particular standards and regulations that apply to that equipment. To describe a boat, the manufacture of which was completed on some date in 2005 and who's CE certificate is dated 2005, as a 2006 boat or a 2006 model year boat is just bunkum
My new boat starts build August 2012, finishes Feb 2013. "Plated" as 2013 and 2013/m/year spec. How shall I describe it when I sell it?
2013 obviously as 2013 will be the year in which the manufacturing process is completed and the CE certificate signed. If the boat was completed and plated in 2012 but not launched until 2013, then it's a 2012 boat IMHO, whatever the HIN no is
Thats exactly what I would do in the same way as you wouldn't take delivery of a new car in December but wait until 1st January. Actually I wouldn't care a damn about when the last cupboard door was screwed on but I'd make sure all the documents were dated Jan
The comparison doesn't hold water, imho.
I don't know what its like in Italy but in the UK, if you take delivery of a car on 31st Dec 2012, its a 2012 car but if you take delivery on 1st Jan 2013, it's a 2013 car. Its whatever the date is given on the registration document as the date of first registration. Similarly, when I look at a used boat, I don't care about the model year, I don't care when it was launched, I always check the date of the signature on the CE (HIN) certificate and that decides what year that boat is as far as I'm concerned. Brokers can try and nuance the situation by quoting model years or launch dates but it's of little interest to me as a used boat buyer
Accepted, but as I said, that's merely a convention.
I don't know that that's true at all. From my Cat engine serial nos, I know the year of manufacture of those engines, the date they were delivered to Ferretti and whether any warranty work was carried out on them. Try finding out when the engine in your car was manufactured and when it was delivered to the assembly plant. Similarly, there are other components on boats, the provenance of which you can trace via the manufacturer from the serial nos on the components concerned. True you don't know when your shafts were manufactured (any more than you know when the propshaft on your car was manufactured) but for many other things you can find that out. The reason for that of course is that a boat is just a collection of proprietary components from different manufacturers, many of whom will keep records.
Yeah but it's the convention that determines the value of your car so thats all I care about
Really? Of course I can't tell for sure that this is BS, but it very much sounds like it.
Fine, but for boats that convention is clearly based on MY, so why do you care about the rest?
+1
I don't know whether you deliberately misunderstand me or what but of course car manufacturers know the precise date that every component was manufactured, delivered and fitted. That will be part of their quality control system. But the point is that, you, the buyer, won't know any of that.