Liquid Logic

George Schneider (Email to Nauticapedia 01/04/2025) stated "LIQUID LOGIC (1303328), a fiberglass auxiliary sail yacht. By covering these tiny craft, I found another revelation. Every state license program is different, but in California, they began by filling up the four numbers, then added a letter at the end. When the system was first established in the 1950's, I gather they filled AA through about AD with existing boats, then progressed from there.

Around the 1990's I saw where they were trying to assign different endings for commercial craft vs. pleasure craft, but that seems to have gone away. I did find a couple specialty designations that endured: Sea Scout boats and the like all ended in YB, apparently for "Youth Boat." And exempt government vessels were assigned XC for ones exempt because they were the property of a city or county, XS for State Property, and XF for federal property, like the recreational boats provided by military bases for their personnel.