max occupancy and weight limit tags

[jrjr12]

I recently purchased a 1977 Sylvan marine 18 sportster boat that I am in the process of fixing up. The max occupancy tag on the boat is completely faded off and no longer readable. The writing on the tag is raised so I can make out some of the writing on the tag but I can not tell everything on the tag.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get the information off this tag or how I can bring the tag back to life to continue to use for coast guard safety reasons? I am unable to find any information on this on google so any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[turbotodd]

I deal with this often. "Most" of the time I'm able to call the manufacturer of the boat and they'll ask several questions, hull length, material thickness, height of the sides, and width at transom and beam. Once those are known, they'll make a new cap tag.

Sometimes the manufacturer is no longer in business and there are no ways to get a new cap tag from the Original manufacturer. I've called the USCG national vessel documentation in the past and gotten information from them as well; but tend to use that as a last resort behind checking the original manufacturer's status and perhaps contacting them directly. Dad recently had this issue with his and luckily Waco is still building boats; I called Waco and they asked the questions and we had a new cap tag in 4 days.

If it has a HIN on the hull, you can find out who originally built the boat and might be able to get in touch with them. The first 3 characters on the HIN will tell you who the manufacturer was. In my case, MTW (team ward, aka war eagle). There are some online resources for decoding the HIN.

https://uscgboating.org/content/manufacturers-identification.php

If no HIN, you will probably have to contact your local authorities to get one made somehow. On another boat I owned, I had to get the state police inspect it, then take it to the USCG office and have them look at it, then had a HIN made for it as "homemade". It was easy then but is now a royal pain in the backside and frankly easier to buy another boat with the HIN already on it (and the proper paperwork for your states requirements).

 

[turbotodd]

Ha how ironic. A friend and I just chatted via phone and I was mentioning this since he knows more than I do. He said go to amazon and order one. Link he texted me was:

https://www.amazon.com/Capacity-Outboards-Decals-Stickers-Outboard/dp/B07QTC19BS/ref=pd_sbs_263_img_2/143-4115619-4889600?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07QTC19BS&pd_rd_r=fb329e9f-3475-418d-a2b7-e62d83052627&pd_rd_w=bmv0t&pd_rd_wg=3pbRh&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=1Y1TH6FJW0055G9YNWXZ&psc=1&refRID=1Y1TH6FJW0055G9YNWXZ