Hobie Cat Forums

Ohio is one of the stickler states that requires both a title and a registration....My 78 has some terrible hulls. Does anyone know the legalities involved with hull swaps? Most of the spare hulls and parts boats that I have come across don't have titles or registration....heck some states don't require one or the other.

I just don't want to be in a pickle if I am stopped and a watercraft officer notices two mismatched hins that don't match my registration or if I decide to sell the boat....

On the older hulls the HINs were very light and often dissapeared under paint which was the case with mine. I also had to do a transom job on both of my hulls so now there is no chance of ever finding an HIN. I boat in Jersey and when it comes to hard a$$ cops this is the place. I never once had them hang over the side to check the HIN on any of my boats. Actually they never confirmed the Reg number matched the card i gave them.

bottom line i wouldn't worry about it

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'73 hobie 16 restored 2011
'00 Seaswirl fishin boat

Tri_X_Troll:
Thats a sticky subject in Florida also, I had my Tandem Island registered (because of the kicker motor, and it's over 16 ft long). The Hull was replaced under warranty from an unrelated hull tear, so I got a new HIN number on the new hull. When it came time to renew my registration it was a huge ordeal, it took over a month of messing around to get it all straightened out (they didn't seem to know what to do), they ended up scrapping the original title and issuing a new title and registration, it cost me about $30 extra, but everything came out ok, I just had to remove the old numbers on the bow and put the new numbers on.

I thought about just engraving the old HIN numbers onto the new hull that matched the title. I don't know about the H16 but on the TI the numbers are just engraved on anyway (I'm not advising anything, it's just a thought).

My opinion is you own a boat, if you replace parts on the boat, it's still the same boat, if one of those replaced parts happens to be a hull body, it's still your boat, but it's not what I think that counts LOL.

We spent last weekend at a beach condo near Midiera beach (near Tampa,fl), buried in the sand on the beach was an abandoned H16 (a guy who lives there said it had been there for years). He said those old abandoned Hobies are all over the place around that area (he had an H14). I imagine once the've been sitting outside for a while it would take too much work to get them back into sailing condition again especially in Florida. It would be a fun project though.
Bob

Thats what i would do if i was worried about it.... prove it, i dare ya. there are no other numbers anywhere inside or out of the hulls so thats the end of it.

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'73 hobie 16 restored 2011
'00 Seaswirl fishin boat