How can I determine the build year of a 70-foot Azimut yacht?

Find the hull identification number on the starboard side of the transom, then check it against the yacht's original documents and Azimut's build records. The number normally identifies the model year and a production or certification date, which may differ from the launch year or the year given in an advert.

Find the hull number

Check the upper right-hand side of the stern, looking forward from behind the yacht. Look for a code moulded, engraved or permanently fixed into the hull. A bathing platform, passerelle installation or later stern modification may obscure it.

On European boats, this is commonly called the Craft Identification Number, or CIN; later paperwork may call it a Watercraft Identification Number, or WIN. American documentation generally uses Hull Identification Number, or HIN.

• Photograph the complete code straight on, then take a wider photograph showing its position.
• Copy every letter, number and separator. Check carefully for confusion between 0 and O, or 1 and I.
• Look for the same number in the identification section of the owner's manual and the original declaration of conformity.

A second identification marking may be concealed elsewhere aboard, but its location varies by model and production year. Ask Azimut where to look before removing trim. If reaching the transom means leaning over the stern or working beside the water, use secure access and have someone with you.

Read the date characters

A typical European CIN has a two-letter country code followed by a three-character manufacturer code, a five-character serial identifier and four date characters. That makes 14 letters and numbers, excluding any hyphen or spaces. An Italian-built yacht would normally have an IT country prefix.

For a conventional modern code ending H101:

• H means August: A is January, B is February, continuing through L for December.
• 1 is the final digit of the production or certification year.
• 01 identifies the 2001 model year.

Together, those characters point to August 2001 and a 2001 model year. The single year digit cannot identify the decade on its own; the model-year characters and original records resolve that.

A yacht completed late in one calendar year can carry the following model year. Older boats and boats documented for different markets may use another format, so do not force an unfamiliar number into this pattern. A certification date is not necessarily the precise day construction finished or the yacht entered the water.