This is just the beginning, more to come. The CG knows many small builders are guilty and they are working harder to go after them. Knocking down the low hanging fruit first.

http://thesouthern.com/news/local/cr...a4bcf887a.html

yep, and it should be criminal to. I went and looked at a hull once at a builder not to far from me here and when i ask him what year it was his answer was what year do you want it to be. I said no what year was it built and he got very vague and dodged the question, i already knew the thing had several previous lives and could see they were trying to pass it off as new. Needless to say we left. Cant believe what some people try to get away with in this industry.

So, they paid a fine because the cooperated.

Did they make them change the HIN's back?

Good question and I do not have a direct answer. From the inside Crownline only got a 105K civil fine. However, additional costs will bring the total to close to one million. I do not yet know what the additional costs are but it is assumed they had to make it all right. The press release from DOJ was very limited.

Wow...good find. I am not far from Crownline and almost went to work for them in 2008. In 2009 they shut thier doors due to the economy. It was a year later that they started back up. My guess is these boats were probably the unfinished boats that were in production when they shut down. A year later, start back up and change the HIN for the current model year(speculation of course)

hmm i can name a coupleof boat companies that have done this. Interesting

I've read about this over the years. It's been happening for a loooooooooong time.

Yes it has. The Coast Guard had a crew at the last Miami Boat Show. They are trying to get caught up and will now being to enforce the laws that were ignored in the past.

Unfortunately this happens all the time. I've personally seen it happen even at the dealership level. Sad for sure!!!!

There have been "new" boats in the classifieds here on OSO that fall under this category. Boat sits at dealership for a year, doesn't sell, goes back to factory for a couple minor changes, and reappears as the next model year boat.