dunno as mercury marine never used year of production as an indicator and its not uncommon to see older or newer desin engines in various hulls.
easiest way to tell a genII from the alpha is to look at the anchor pin for the trim cylinder. the alpha uses nuts and the alpha genII uses E clips.
like I say, the year of the hull manufacture date may not coincide with the year model of the drive package.
brunswick marine uses engine,transom shield and drive seriel numbers for any and all identification purposes.
