Sorry, couldn't get passed your avatar. Are all Malaysian like that?

87 was the first year for the Top Gun prior to that it was the 38 Flat Deck. This boat pictured is an 87 TopGun or a very good copy of one. If the secondary HIN still exists it should be under the right (starboard ) rubrail about a foot from the transom. They were a very thin aluminum stamping and did not last long in salt water. I have seen many remnants but never a full tag, only takes a few screws to excavate the area if you find two screw or rivit holes about five inches apart with nothing in them its gone. Good luck with it.

Heck no, just the opposite! When we want to see girls like these we must fly over to Thailand or the Philippines
Besides, I keep telling my wife that I chose this avatar because of the boat.

Great, thanks! I will definitely try it out. And I should ask the seller if I can sand off that area at the transom, but somehow I feel the HIN will not come back.

Correct.

Took me four months to organize the transport from that island to my workshop which I had set up in the meantime.

Things are different here. There are no Mycos, there isn´t any trailer in the whole country big enough for a 38 ft boat. And either is there a pickup truck that could tow it.
So I had to contract a low loader. And a travel lift and a crane. A barge to bring the whole rig over to the mainland. And a crane at the destination, a provisional cradle, a towing truck and a forklift. Including the drivers, operators and helpers a total of 25 men were working that weekend to bring my baby home.

The makers of the floating dock (AirBerth) had strongly advised not to use it as a cradle for the transport of the boat. I did it anyway.
Customs clearance went smoothly, nobody found the ton of spare parts under the berth or noticed that the ugly black “cradle” costs 22k when new.

24 hours later the boat arrived, no damage, nothing missing. Unloading was tricky in the narrow road and the small castors of the provisional steel cradle sank into the hot asphalt (yes, we have over 90 degrees here in January) but at the end we got it inside, finally safe under a roof.

Let the work begin! First I want to check is if the engines turn, fingers crossed. Hope they are not seized.

That old sail over the arch sure looks ugly




That was tight

Man, kudos to you for the relentlessness effort on getting this done! Most people would've thrown in the towel with just trying to get it moved let alone refurbished. Looking forward to the updated pics as it comes along. By the way, I really like that maroon color. Classy.