Boats, outboards and personal watercraft
Boat serial number and HIN lookup
Read a boat’s hull identification number under the federal rules, or find the year of an outboard from the codes its maker prints on it. Every tool says plainly what the number can’t tell you.
Hull identification numbers
AllRead a boat’s 12-character hull identification number under the federal HIN rules.
Outboard year lookups
AllDate an outboard motor from the codes each manufacturer documents on its labels and model numbers.
- MercuryFind the year a Mercury outboard was made from the year box or the letter code on its serial label, and what Mercury’s Program Year means.
- YamahaYamaha stamps each outboard’s production month and year on the mounting bracket. Find it, read the primary identification number and see why there is no model year.
- Evinrude and JohnsonRead the model year hidden in an Evinrude or Johnson outboard model number, using the INTRODUCES letter code from BRP’s model number references.
- HondaFor Honda outboards from 1998 to 2006, two characters in the type designation give the model year. Decode yours, and see why newer Honda serials can’t be dated.
- Shaft length codesRead an outboard’s shaft length from the letter in its model number: Evinrude and Johnson codes from BRP, and Honda codes by model family from Honda’s guide.
Sea-Doo identification
AllFind and read the hull identification number on a Sea-Doo personal watercraft.
Outboard and watercraft warning codes
AllWhat warning horns, beeps and gauge messages mean, from the manufacturer’s operator guides.
- Mercury 15/20 EFI warningsWhat the warning horn and light mean on a Mercury 15 or 20 hp EFI FourStroke outboard, from Mercury’s operation manual, with the steps it tells owners to take.
- Sea-Doo beep codesWhat a Sea-Doo’s beeps and gauge warnings mean on 2025 GTI, GTR, WAKE and Spark watercraft, and what BRP’s operator guides tell riders to do.
Before you decode
- Hull and engine are separate. The HIN on the transom identifies the boat. An outboard has its own serial and model numbers, and engines get swapped.
- Copy every character. A HIN is 12 characters; a 1 read as an I or a 0 read as an O gives a number for a boat that doesn’t exist.
- A HIN isn’t a title check. Ownership, liens and theft records sit with your state’s boat registration office.
- No boat values. Used-boat values come from proprietary guides, not from any government or manufacturer source, so we don’t estimate them.