North American vs. Mako
 

I have a friend who is having Fl. title problems on a 1976 19/20' North
American center console after doing extensive cosmetic refurbishment
along with a new transom and console.

Are there any Ft. Lauderdale old timers here who may know if North
American put the hull I.D. elsewhere besides the transom?

Is anyone familiar enough with basic hull differences between the
N.American and the similar 17' and 20' Makos of the time to settle the
question.

The cap is original but repainted over the years.

Thanks

On 3 Feb 2005 07:45:48 -0800, wrote:

wrote:
I have a friend who is having Fl. title problems on a 1976 19/20'
North
American center console after doing extensive cosmetic refurbishment
along with a new transom and console.

Are there any Ft. Lauderdale old timers here who may know if North
American put the hull I.D. elsewhere besides the transom?

Is anyone familiar enough with basic hull differences between the
N.American and the similar 17' and 20' Makos of the time to settle
the
question.

The cap is original but repainted over the years.

Thanks

The difference between the 1976 N.American and Mako has been determined
to the satifaction of the law,
BUT! They still won't give the guy back his boat because the shop who
redid the transom, although they acknowleged the number on the written
estimate and receipt they gave the guy when he dropped off the boat,
didn't etch it into the transom before it left the yard..

What a nightmare.

Guy buys a decommissioned rental boat with a rotten transom in the
Keys. Knows the boat and seller for 7 years, always having an eye on it
until it comes up for sale.

Seller, a notary himself, is as honest as they come. I've known him 15
years and know the rental boat for the full 7 years it was in service.
Even rented it myself a few times while mine was down over the years.

When he bought the boat for his rental fleet, he went to the tax office
with the previous seller and had no problems getting title at that time
nor did they have any problems with this recent sale and retitling.

The guy takes the boat to Miami and puts in a yard selected after
getting bids. While sitting in the yard, another guy sees the
N.American which had just been painted and goes to the law and swears
its his Mako which was stolen just recently.

When the first guy picks up the boat gets a block away from the yard,
he's taken down at an intersection at gun point, SWAT style during
which he actually suffered broken bones along with a trip to jail. He
did not resist.

The law mistakenly claimed the boat was the stolen Mako and confiscated
it.

Now they know the boat is not the stolen Mako. But still won't return
the boat because in spite of having full title, documentation and sworn
statements from the previous owner and documentation from the boatyard
stating the numbers before the work.

The law thinks all the unrelated events are some kind of conspiricy.


Another set of numbers elsewhere in the boat would settle the issue.

No offense, but something about this just looks weird.

If he has the title, the police have no justification for anything. It
also seems a little odd that they would take this kind of action
without first checking out the yard and owner. If he has a verified
paper trail, the police are in violation of unreasonable search and
seizure laws.

Just doesn't make sense.

Later,

Tom

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On 3 Feb 2005 07:45:48 -0800, wrote:

No offense, but something about this just looks weird.

If he has the title, the police have no justification for anything.
It
also seems a little odd that they would take this kind of action
without first checking out the yard and owner. If he has a verified
paper trail, the police are in violation of unreasonable search and
seizure laws.

Just doesn't make sense.

Later,

Tom

I agree. No offense taken.

I can only figure that the yard may have been under some previous
suspicion and survailence. He only got one block. This was not a big
named boatyard I'm sure. Just one of the hundreds in the 3rd world
Miami area with who knows what for a past.

I think he is caught up in something none of us understand and good
lawyers are expensive to a workingman.

Some manufacturers put the number in more than one place. If N.
American did, it will settle the matter without great expense.

A peculiar situation? It certainly is.

On 2/3/05, bestweb3d wrote:
The difference between the 1976 N.American and Mako has been determined
to the satifaction of the law,
snip
The law thinks all the unrelated events are some kind of conspiricy.

Sounds like a typical bureaucratic snafu. He'll eventually get it
sorted out if he has the patience and perseverance to hang in there,
push the right buttons and pull the right strings.

I bought an old 16' skiff and replaced the rotten transom. Saved the
skin though, cut out the original Hull ID and epoxied it onto the new
transom. I've wondered what sort of future probs I was creating by
doing that but what the hey, I couldn't live with the transom the way
it was.
I wish I had taken before and after pics of the boat, the transom, and
Hull ID but didn't think of that until afterwards.
Not sure anything he does now will help much, depending on which
bureaucrat you find yourself having to deal with.

Another set of numbers elsewhere in the boat would settle the issue.

As far as an alternate Hull ID location, I can't think of anyplace in
a boat that might not eventually be replaced. And it sounds like, in
this case, even that might not be enough to prove "non-conspiracy" to
the satisfaction of an unsympathetic government bureaucrat.
Good luck with that.

I agree with the other poster that it doesn't make sense. But in a
govt run bureaucracy, things often don't.

Rick

On 1 Feb 2005 11:45:34 -0800, wrote:

I have a friend who is having Fl. title problems on a 1976 19/20' North
American center console after doing extensive cosmetic refurbishment
along with a new transom and console.

Are there any Ft. Lauderdale old timers here who may know if North
American put the hull I.D. elsewhere besides the transom?

It is located on the starboardside gunwal, under the rail.


Is anyone familiar enough with basic hull differences between the
N.American and the similar 17' and 20' Makos of the time to settle the
question.

I used to work for Mako, as a senior development officer, and it is my
experience, the the Mako is superior.


The cap is original but repainted over the years.

Thanks