Serial Numbering
In response to questions through the CSOA e-mail group,
Wilson Yates provided the following insight into CS boat numbering and the
number built of each model - thanks, Wilson.
Subject: Re: {CSOA} Re: What's the last sail number?
HI GROUP,
Here we go again, the old topic of serial #s. Well, some of the information
with the letters in the serial number, one has to do with the build date
and one to do with the delivery date. I am not sure which one is for what.
... CS Yachts assigned code that tells customs who made it. The next part
is the serial or hull # assigned to that boat. 2265 would be it, again
not the number of boats built. That was a trade secret, like when you looked
at the boatshow and thought they had built over 2000, that would make it
a bit more popular that it really was. Most builders used the true # from
one, like the Nonsuch 30 cat boat. At CS, marketing was a game too, the
hull# for a 36t started at 2100 or 2101, the first 100 had 21-- at the
beginning. The 33 numbering system I am not so fimilar with, but it may
have started at 3300. The CS 30 we know, started at 4400 or 4401 and ended
at 4734 as far as I can remember. I can remember that hull on the floor
but none after that. I was there and made the lifelines and the standing
and running rigging and probably got the loose gear list in my boxes of
mostly useless CS papers even now.. The merlin started with 6200, we have
that one in our group. About 92 built altogether. The CS 40 started at
5200 and stopped at about 5257. The Cs 34 from what I can remember started
at about 8220, and ended about 8282, with just over 60 built in total in
Brampton. We have heard from someone that they were built in Brazil after,
but I have no knowledge of that. There was on CS 44 built in Brampton that
I made running for in the early `80`s called Sheer Magic, a beautiful boat
but too expensive for its time. There were two other boats brought to Brampton
that were built in Brazil, a CS50 and a Freres CS39. There was also a CS
40 so called, looked nothing like a stock 40, that was raced on Lake Ontario,
a boat called "Blade",
better known as "blister" around the plant. That boat has a long racing
record and I seen it for sail with the name "Peter Pan" a short time ago.
Hope some of this helps. I am here laughing to myself and sorry I never
kept the foney newspaper clipping we had about how the Pope had to meet
with CS owner Paul Tennyson on his trip to Toronto in the early 1980`s.
That really was a good one! Wilson Yates
August 2009
Re: {CSOA} Serial # interpretation
Martin,
The hull numbers for a CS 27 started at 1100. The numbers after that will just
follow up to somewhere near 500 boats. Don`t think I have ever heard of one over
1600. The production went up to 1980 for sure because the masts at CS changed
to Isomat around the beginning of the CS 33 production. There were several new
Isomat 27 masts that were sitting at CS right up till 1990 left from the last
production run. I remember selling off some of them around that time. The last
part of the serial number should give the month and year of the boat. Some of
the later CS serial numbers also showed a build date that was a letter of the
alphabet. All CS hull numbers were a little misleading. The start numbers were
jumbled and gave us the size of boat. CS 27-- 1100 CS36t--- 2100 CS33--- 3300.
CS30---4400 CS36M---6200 CS40---5200 CS34---8200 (34`s actually started at 8220).
Starting with higher numbers was a good marketing tool I figure at US shows,
lots of people thought that CS built over 4700 CS 30`s but around 330 were built
in total.
Wilson