SUNBIRD wrote:Prior to then O'DAY gave every boat 2 numbers, a "HULL#" and a "CLASS#". Hull# referred to how many total O'DAY boats had been built, and Class# was how many of that class (Day Sailer). You can sometimes get an estimate of the age of the boat by comparing the Hull and Class numbers to another O'DAY that the year is known, but that isn't perfect! I used to own a 1969 vintage Widgeon, Hull# 22698 Class# 1791, going by the numbers that O'DAY published in their 1968, 69 and 70 Brochures, my estimate of 1969 seems about right. Seeing others listed in various places on-line further backs that up. However, I have found that sometimes comparing 2 Widgeons.... the difference in hull number does not always agree with the difference in class number, so......?
One problem is that boats are not listed by their owners consistently due to misunderstanding of the Hull#/Class# relationship. Since now a days we usually refer to hull# and HIN as the same, some boats are listed under the Hull# and some under the Class# (check out the DSA membership list, yikes!)
One story, published here in a forum post, is that they had the sails done up (with the numbers on them) on a shelf, in bags. They would complete a hull, have someone stamp the hull number on it, then pull a set of sails from the shelf, copy of the numbers and that was it. Given that they completed a few hundred boats a year during the peak years, you can imagine that a system like that could lead to some fluctuation.
But, because the hull# counts ALL hulls, no matter the model, there's also the expected effect of the hull number increasing faster than the sail number (which only counts a specific model).
There is another possible discrepancy when it comes to sail numbers listed in the directory. If you can't determine your class (=sail) number for any reason, the DSA secretary will "assign" a number to you, or let you "claim" your best guess of a number -- as long as there's no other DS registered with the same number. I "claimed" the best guess for my boat in this way. There was no physical evidence of any hull or class number on hull or sails, only the nail holes where the builder's plaque had been affixed to the stern coaming.
However, the registration papers gave a "hull" number that was numerically in the range of sail numbers for the age of the boat (the real age as determined by looking a the "
DS 1 Design Changes" spreadsheet, not the age listed in the paperwork. So I went ahead, took that number to the DSA secretary and it's now "assigned" to my boat (should I ever want to race it in a DSA-sanctioned event).