RE: [Paddlewise] Bay Area Paddlers Please Take Note

All boats, including kayaks, sold in North America are supposed to have a
HIN (in two places: outside starboard on the stern and port inside at the
bow ... or in the cockpit in the case of kayaks), that is a Hull
Identification Number. This number contains a code for the manufacturer's
name, which is registered with the Coast Guard. In other words, all kayaks
manufactured and sold legally already have identification such as Tord
mentions. This identification can usually lead to the first legal buyer of
the boat via the manufacturer, who will have kept a record of the HIN on
each bill of sale. Retailers may not always record the HINs of boats they
sell to their customer. Nor do private sales usually continue the chain. I
expect it would be very useful if they did.

Matt Broze explains all this much better than I could:

http://www.marinerkayaks.com/mkhtml/stolendb.htm
http://www.marinerkayaks.com/mkhtml/STLNKYKW.html
etc.

A RMP officer with whom I happen to discuss this issue a few years ago
suggested purchasing a small jar of (personalized) microdots, which one can
affix to one's property in order to make it recognizable after it has been
recovered after a theft. Seemed like a good idea to me ... however, since
this kind of stuff always happens to other people and never to me, I have
not acted upon it ...

Ralph Hoehn

-----Original Message-----
From: Tord Eriksson
Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Bay Area Paddlers Please Take Note

On Thursday 11 October 2007 07:20, Matt Broze wrote:

> I'm open to ideas as to how something like this might be most effective.

If all kayaks sold had the owners name stencilled on them they would be less
prone to be stolen, I suspect.
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