Personally I would be leary of a boat with a ground off HIN. But having said that, there might be a duplicate HIN inside. Don't know if that is the case with Freebird, but around 1984 or so manufacturers had to put a duplicate HIN elsewhere on the vessel. Jerry M might be of help on this one. Joe ----- Original Message ----- From: "Annemiek Munneke" <annemiek_munneke@hotmail.com> To: <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 3:13 PM Subject: M_Boats: Freebird

Hi everybody, I wonder if any of you could help me answer a few questions. My boyfriend and I are looking at buying our first sailboat. It is a Montgomery 17 called Freebird. We have done some searching and found that some of you know a little about her. We understand that she was made specially in order for a guy to sail across the Pacific. She has a bridge deck to reduce the cockpit size. She is looking a little tired now and we want to buy her and make her right again. The thing is we are in Honduras, so is she. The guy selling her has no registration documents and she has no hull ID number (seems to have been sanded off). He says he bought her from a guy who sailed her from California, through the Panama canal. He has owned her for about 8 years. So if you could tell us: more about the chain of ownershipyear of productionor any other relevant information We would really appreciate any advice or knowledge you can offer.

Thanks in advance, Anna

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Anna, If you are buying the boat in Hondurus, I think I would start by finding out what the Hondurian laws are regarding boat registration. There may be a reason that the numbers were removed to comply with local laws and a local registration number assigined. While I was living in Germany, I bought a boat which was built in the UK an d had Croatian registration. The German authorities went by the Croation numbers to transfer the papers. I considered bringing the boat back to the USA and registering here would have been based on the German registration documents. Does the boat have a current registration in a US state? If for example, if the boat has California numbers on the bow, you could probably go back to the California records to get the MFG number. In any case, if the boat was custom built by either Montgomery or Northsea for a special purpose, I am sure Jerry Montgomery or Northsea would be able to help. My philosophy when living overseas was "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". Ron

From: annemiek_munneke@hotmail.com> To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:13:09 +0100> Subject: M_Boats: Freebird> > Hi everybody,> I wonder if any of you could help me answer a few questions. My boyfriend and I are looking at buying our first sailboat. It is a Montgomery 17 called Freebird. We have done some searching and found that some of you know a little about her. We understand that she was made specially in order for a guy to sail across the Pacific. She has a bridge deck to reduce the cockpit size. She is looking a little tired now and we want to buy her and make her right again. The thing is we are in Honduras, so is she. The guy selling her has no registration documents and she has no hull ID number (seems to have been sanded off). He says he bought her from a guy who sailed her from California, through the Panama canal. He has owned her for about 8 years.> So if you could tell us:> more about the chain of ownershipyear of productionor any other relevant information> We would really appreciate any advice or knowledge you can offer.> > Thanks in advance, > Anna> > _________________________________________________________________> Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE!> http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/> _______________________________________________> http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats

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