Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19980709233535.007b0300@sowega.net>
Date: Thu, 09 Jul 1998 23:35:35 -0400
To: baidarka@lists.intelenet.net
From: Wynne Eden <graymare@sowega.net>
Subject: [baidarka] Hull ID numbers not a myth
In-Reply-To: <35A5579B.F45FFF88@earthlink.net>
I (Wynne--no "a") wrote this:
>> >> Without the legal 12 digit Hull ID # your kayak can be impounded--they
>> >> won't worry with boarding it, they'll just yank her aboard and drop
>> >you,
>> >> sans kayak, at the dock.
in response to "lets see a cop board me!!". I did say "CAN", not will be.
And nope,. it's not an urban legend. It's a legal enforcement of a
published US law. Your boat *could* be impounded. But it won't. The CG
says it won't ever happen, as the states give out too much bad info as
regards HINs (I can't get GA to issue me one, and the legal guys at the CG
are arguing with the state DNR over this, since the state can't charge me
to register, so won't issue a HIN). The law allows them to impound a boat
that doesn't posses a HIN as proof of ownership cannot be established. The
guy I"m dealing with says the most extreme thing that would happen is
they'd ticket you, which would be suspended when you proved that you'd
gotten the #. If anyone needs validation of what I wrote, request the
"Boater Safety Pack" from the CG site or toll free phone # 800-369-5647.
Tell them you have a "home made boat" and you want information on complying
with requirements for a Hull ID number.
You couldn't use "coasties suck99", because it don't fit the pattern, and
it's too many digits. You use 12 digits that your state is supposed to
knwo how to assign, unless you live in Alaska.
My doberman has never choked, my microwave has never exploded a poodle, and
I've never murdered anyone hitchhiking, then disappeared...though I might.
I just made the mistake of wanting to find out the law, after someone else
brought it up, then thinking intelligent folks would be interested in
knowing what I found out.
The rationale is the same as it is for VINs (you have to get one of those
if you build a homemade car and drive it on publicly maintained roads--but
they make you get more safety inspections done and have tons of regulations
to adhere to) only you're less likely to get caught.
Damn! See if I ever mention a published fact to you guys again. I'd put a
smiley after that, but it'd be insincere. Did only one person read the
original post?
At 07:51 PM 7/9/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Sounds like an urban (suburban,?submarine?) myth to me....... I quite
>agree, the burden
>of proof is on those whose homemade baidarkas have been actually
>impounded for lacking a 14 digit id number. Wolfgang? Speak up!
>Anyone???
>For more neat urban myths go to
>
>http://www.urbanlegends.com/ they're a
>hoot! Actually this sounds a bit to me like a book I once read about
>an anthropologist who went about trying to quantify the practice of
>cannibalism from first-hand (sorry, no pun intended) sources. (One
>man's meat is another man's person?)(Somebody stop me!) Well the upshot
>was that he got plenty of "Oh yeah, those heathens on the next ridge do
>it all the time....." responses. But no hard eyewitness or firsthand
>testimony.(He came back alive, I guess.) This was repeated everywhere
>he went.... Anyway...... I heard that after the Coast Guard impounds
>the baidarkas.....they make soup of the paddlers. (On the other
>hand....if it is true...how 'bout C.O.A.S.T.I.E.S. S.U.C.K 99 for a id
>number? Here's yer digit bub! Just kidding! Holster that thing
>again!) Ok. the petty bureaucrat coasties in Washington who never get
>salt spray in their little paramedic mustaches are the ones who have too
>much time on their hands (ie: suck.) Agreed? But then only on the
>outside chance if it proves out!
> Chris
>Kirk Olsen wrote:
>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Karl_Schlenker@umit.maine.edu (Karl Schlenker)
>>
>> >> Wayne Eden wrote:
>>
>> >> Without the legal 12 digit Hull ID # your kayak can be impounded--they
>> >> won't worry with boarding it, they'll just yank her aboard and drop
>> >you,
>> >> sans kayak, at the dock.
>>
>> I haven't given this issue much thought (and no research), but I do
>> have one question that I'd like to ask of everyone, and it is this:
>> Has anyone had a kayak impounded by USCG for not having a hull number?
>> (..I know of someone who knows of someone's cousin who had it happen to
>> them... doesn't count)
>>
>> Karl Schlenker
>
>