Hard TIme Reading Serial Number

Alex Walters

New Member
Hello, I am new to this forum and joined because I could not find an answer to my problem anywhere else. I was hoping that the nice people of this forum could help me answer my question. I have a laser sailboat that I race and have never been able to exactly pin-point the year of the boat. The boat is slightly different then most lasers, it was made in England so the serial number is in fact under the bow eye. The serial number reads BAF046. On almost every laser serial number I have seen the last 2 numbers have indicated the year of the boat. This issue has really been bugging me for quite sometime, because many people ask me what the year of my boat is, and have to reply with "I don't know" which makes me look like an idiot.
 
The UK manufacturer ceased putting the serial number under the bow eye aroundabout # 105000. After that the sail number was put on a silver plaque at the back of the transom - like the attached photo. These can become quite hard to read after a time. The 1 of the sail number was imprinted on the plaque, the remaining 5 digits were hand written or etched.

The number under the bow eye is purely a manufacturing code and does not relate to the sail number.
Cockpit Sail Number Plaque.jpg
 
The boat is currently being kept at a yacht club that I am a member of, so the pictures will have to wait until this Friday (10-3). The boat does have a plaque and I will be sure to take a picture of that, as well as the number under the bow eye. I appreciate your responses so far.
 
Okay, I finally remember to post a reply on here. The serial number under the bow eye reads BAF049 and the number in the cockpit reads 21904. Sorry for such a late reply!
 
That's a fairly low sail number, I'm going to guess 1974-75. It most likely pre-dates and coding of the year and sail number into the serial number.
 
I think, probably, that your sail number is 121904, but the leading "1" on the plaque has become faded over the years. Are you able to take a photo of the plaque?

Assuming that the number is 121904, then your boat was built around 1984/1985.

Also, what colour hull and deck is your boat?

Does she have wooden or black grab rails in the cockpit, stainless steel or black plastic gudgeons on the transom and are the foils varnished wood or a white plastic material? All these can be indicators of the age of the boat.

If the boat really was as old as 21904 then she would originally have had wooden grab rails, stainless gudgeons and wooden foils.
 
Here are the photos of the foils, transom, cockpit, metal plate in cockpit, serial number, and general photos of the boat. The gudgeons are black plastic, the grab rails in the cockpit are black plastic and the foils/blades are a white platic material. If you have trouble veiwing the photos please let me know. Here is the link to view them https://lasersailboatphotos.shutterfly.com/pictures
 
Looks like a mid-1980s boat - like Horizon suggested, the number on the plate is obviously missing an initial "1".
Appears to be in a good shape for a 30-year-old.
 
Thanks for posting the photos Alex.

Yes, I agree with LaLi, she is definitely number 121904 and would have been built probably early 1985.

Here are a couple more photos of plaques in different states of fading - as you can see, the leading "1" is disappearing. On your boat, as with nearly all of the printed writing on the plaque it has gone altogether.
 

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