bertram31.com

I've read every post on the site when I did a search on hull id, and it has been very educating, yet still I have a mystery in really knowing if the number I found (located on the mid-ship beam below deck between the two engines routed into the wood) is actually the full hull id number. The number in question was rather badly routed into the wood and reads in two lines:

28595 G
NET 6

There looks to be a very faint number 31 in front of the first line, but has been glassed and painted over to the extent of being unrecognizable. So in essence the number might actually be...

3128595 G
NET 6

Does this number ring a bell with anyone here? Or even what the NET 6 means in the number? The reason I need to verify this is because I am almost done with the paperwork to renew the title and the lawyer on the case is demanding absolute certainty in the matter. I have looked exhaustively in all other places on the boat suggested in the multitude of posts on this site but found nothing. Luckily this location was suggested and there it was hidden behind a midship fuel tank on the beam. I believe the boat is a 64 but even that is a mystery.

Any help is surely appreciated,
thanks
Cody

That's a documentation number, not hull number. Your boat was documented at one time. Net 6 means the weight class, 6 ton, but I thought net 8 was the lowest. If you can verify the documentation, it will be the best title proof you can have.

ScottD

hmm, documentation number.
where would I go with that, the coast guard?

Cody,

USCG does maintain a searchable data base of documented boats and owners, but it's mostly current data Or very newly expired... I tried searching for your doc #, but to no avail.

The Coast Guard data base search is actually under NOAA's Office of Science and Technology

Contacting the Coast Guard themselves may get you some more info if they have an old data base that contains your numbers.

Good luck in your search!

Br,

Patrick

I tried that database as well until I found out it was purged often. Going back to the 60's might very well be impossible. Guess I'll have to continue my search for that elusive "magic marker" hull id hidden behind some bulkhead.

Thanks for the info!

If a Federal Documentation number cannot be traced, what the hell is the benefit of documentation? Based on this, dremel any number on your stringer and say you're documented. Walter

well put.

I just found some old notes that do indeed confirm the number on the stringer is 2859 SG - NET6. The notes have "6 tons" written below the NET6. I believe the SG stands for Savanah, Georgia where the boat might have been documented by the previous owner my dad bought the boat from in '76.

So the mystery is half solved, and I have "half" a number I can perhaps renew my papers with.. and get it back in the water.

looks like I might have discovered the previous owner of my boat through an old diary of my dad's, it was Dan Topping, one of the co-owners of the New York Yankees, who died in 1974. My dad bought the boat, a '64 Bertram 31, in february of 1976, and began his restoration. Now supplied with the previous owner and an old vessel documentation number, the mystery history of the origins of the boat may well be solved.

Thanks for the leads everyone.