The 10th digit is a 5, signifying the last digit of the year Of Tom's boat is a "B" stating that the boat was built in February. If the 9th digit was M-Z or a number, it would be an older style HIN. The Iota's designer, Bruce Kirby, said that only 8 Iotas were built, so the Long Beach Iotaīecause the 9th digit is a letter of the alphabet between A and L (representing the 12 months), we know that the HIN is the newer style This is not an absolute, but most boat builders started numbering at 00100 This boat was apparently theĨth to be built (serial 00108). The digits 4 through 8 are the boat's serial number provided by the manufacturer. Understand why it has such an unusual name!" COLD SWEAT is a great name for a frostbiter!Īccording to the US Coast Guard, SDB is the 3-letter Manufacturer's Identification Code (MIC) for Stur-Dee When I told Tom that the boat was designed specifically for frostbiting, he said, "Now I can I encouraged Tom to correct that deficiency! Even though he lives in Long Beach NY, he doesn't know how to That a woman who was moving gave it to him. The owner, Tom, sent me more photos of his boat including a HIN stamped into the transom. I told him what he had and asked if there was a HIN on the Recognized it as an Iota and contacted the seller. In January, 2014, I found another "unknown" 12-foot sailboat on the Long Island Craigslist. Works, Vero Beach Florida, and at a base price of $5,150, 125 units were sold in the first year of production. In 1990, Kirby designed a similar 12' cat-rigged dinghy called the Trinka. It seemed strange to me that only 8 Iotas were produced considering the excellent quality of construction. I was fascinated to hear him say that, at 85 years of age, he was designing two more yachts! The club had planned to market the Iota to recoup costs. ![]() ![]() Yacht Club had asked him to design a boat forįrostbiting but for some reason, only 8 boats wereīuilt. Kirby responded to my letter, saying that a City Island, N.Y. More than 1,200 SJ-24s were produced and it is estimated that a quarter million Lasers have His best-known creations are the Laser and the San Time with over 60 boats of his conception since 1958. Olympic and America's Cup sailor, Bruce Kirby, is one of the most prolific boat and yacht designers of all According toġ2-foot catboat named Iota of which 8 were reportedly produced. Of Bruce Kirby's sailboat designs on his personal website. I tried including "Iota" in combination with other words in quotes. An iota is the 9th letter of the Greek alphabet and the word is frequently used toĭenote anything small - like a 12-foot sailboat!Īrmed with this information, I did an internet search of "Iota sailboat" and discovered that hundreds of The word IOTA, which I had falsely assumed was the name of the sailmaker, was I have an extensive database of sail logos,īut there was no such symbol. My detective instinct kicked in and I began a A HIN was not required before 1972, but theĬonstruction and rigging is typical of the eighties. ![]() There was no Hull Identification Number anywhere to be found. The boat was titled in Pennsylvania in 2004, but as "unknown manufacture. It was dirty, but a power wash showed it to be in surprisingly In October, 2013, someone across the river in Philadelphia donated an unknown 12-foot sailboat with trailer.
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