venerable 70 H16 project

I am currently redoing my 1988 Nacra. The boat had been sitting in a feild for 10 years without a cover on it. A combination of intense sun and cold winters, took their toll on the hulls, trampoline and just about everything else.
I have sanded the oxidation and discolouration out, not down to the fiberglass but a good sand. I have also faired the bottoms and touched up any previous repairs with epoxy and filler.
After this, I have painted both hulls with Interlux Blue/gray primer. After it dried, I sanded with 180 grit until transparent. Interlux brightside was my paint of choice, two coats later and some 400 grit sanding and they look brand new.

Hope this helps.

Jay

glass the apparant holes, rig that puppy up and see if its all there. if yes then check out those wheels(probably replace bearings) and get it wet! don't do restoration yet, sail that thing and let it tell you what needs attention. after you get the kinks out then worry with some "prettying up". thats my used boat strategy, don't waste time or money on cosmetics when the boat could have pressing functional needs. i bought a 500$ boat last spring that we patched up and sailed a bunch(til we broke it) and now were doing paint and new parts upgrade. good luck! bill.

I agree with Bill. I, too, sailed it until things started to break. At the end of last year, had a major wipeout in 35kts after the forestay chainplate tore out of the hull. Needless to say, major repair and it was time for some "prettying up" as Bill put it. Good luck. Jay

yep, we de-masted in 25 kt. winds when the upper forestay crapped out, having the time of our lives up until that point! oh yeah, check out ALL the running gear real good, look for rust/poped wire strands at the couplings on the rigging as well as everything you can see. try not to take it out for the first time when its BLOWING BIG TIME(over 15 or so knots). when your ready to spend some money on it, there is some links to some great companies on another recent thread(good source fo running rigging?) with great deals on line kits, standing rigging sets, and so on. now when you get to the hulls, patch and restore gel coat or paint is the question.

Thanks guys. My impulse is to get it wet ASAP, although the river is still a bit... brisk.

Strange, I looked right at this several times without seeing the whole picture. Mismatched gudgeon screws, mysterious bulge, back part of the deck broken off. Looks like the port rudder may have been torn off at some time, maybe in a trailering accident. Seems to work OK, but we'll see how it behaves under load. Not sure how I'd fix that.

I did get it rigged without causing too much new damage. (Don't ask.) Everything seems to be in decent shape except for bungees and tramp bags.

BTW, around here, 15 knots is considered a light breeze. Although if it goes much over that, I might be putting away the cat and getting out the kites.

Someone has upgraded your rudder system to the new style one-piece gudgeon. That's nice because they make the rudder pin holes line up perfectly.

Those things don't match the old gudgeon screw locations, a lot of people buy them and don't realize what a pain they are to install.

So it's unknown how good a job was done drilling and tapping the new holes.

The damaged deck lip at the rudders is pretty typical of old Hobie 16's, I would just seal any exposed fiberglass with epoxy.

I would join in and say "Hey, it's a 40 year old boat, just rig it and sail it!"

But since you have a little time before the weather is good, try hitting the hulls with a strong mixture of Oxylic Acid (Barkeepers friend or Wood Bleach), wearing rubber gloves, mix a strong solution in a bucket, rub it lightly on a three foot section of hull, dipping brush often, move on to the next section. Leave on for at least 15 minutes, but don't let it dry. Rinse very well, that will remove oxidation so you can see what condition the gelcoat is in, you might be amazed how good it looks.

paint it camo and go sail! 🙂

My hulls on my '79 H16 were just as bad, 800 grit waterpaper and an electric sander brought the colour back, you will be amazed. :-O

If you look at the transome on my cat, you can see the original oxidized gelcoat

Here is a contrast of old and new. (not my beer bottle)

finished off with Poliglow, a clearcoat.

edited by: turbohobo, Mar 10, 2010 - 03:22 PM

check it out ..... http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=72226

Awesome job on your boat Turbo, looks great, now does she go?!

How many coats of Polyglow did you use? I bought a kit last year and never tried it, never got the work done sanding the hulls, don't have a sander and would probably do more damage than good since I've never used one.

Sanding machine from Harbor Freight about $7,
Waterpaper from WalMart about $4 for 8 sheets
Sander has rubber bottom and clips on either side to hold waterpaper, cut sheet to fit, attach one side, pull tight over rubber block and attach to other side. Get out garden hose with spray nozzle, wet area and begin removing oxidization. If waterpaper slips off, rubber block does not do any damage, so easy even I could do it. And if I can, so can you. I used about 6 coats of clearcoat, it goes on very quick and dries even quicker, about 10 min on 1 hull to apply 1 coat, allow to dry while you do other side, then repeat.

a 7" angle buffer(like used in auto finish) and a quality rubbing compound(3m "cut and buff") will make quick work of oxidation removal. just make sure you use a new bonnett, make sure hull is free of all dirt and sand, and don't let the bonnett touch any dirt or sand(always set it on a clean surface) if there is any sand or dirt it will leave those "swirrels" you have seen on a bad buff job. a budget buffer runs about 75$ or so and bonnetts run about8$ and the cut and buff is about 20$ a bottle.

This is the orbital sander I purchased from Harbor Freight, it was on clearance when I bought it for $7

check these out too

http://www.marinestore.com/vertglas-images.html?cart=3351155118212388

http://www.myboatstore.com/poliglow4.asp?source=goog&kw=vertglass&gclid=CMyYx_uasaACFQ1nswodEyEmUg

I used a new product called BSinacan and it turned my cat from this:

To this:

That's what I like about you Andrew, you have a sense of humour........ 😆

you have a sense of humour........ icon_lol

stop spreading vicious rumors about me.. would ya...

andrewscott wrote:

I've got one of those!

you guys are such Barbies.....how did you get into such a manly sport like sailing?...... 😕

Now if we could just rig Barbie's catamaran with a jib..... 🙂

how did you get into such a manly sport like sailing?

The field hockey team was full?

Thanks guys. So far, I've tried the Barkeep's Friend treatment. As you can see (pic) it cleaned up the surface deposits, but did nothing for the mottled-gray discoloration. Less ugly, anyway.

Next dumb question: I've noticed that when I remove the hull plugs, after a sail, the port hull has a slight vacuum inside. i.e. The vent seems to be at least partially plugged. Is this anything to be concerned about? At least it's not vented through punctures!

(Mental image of flying a hull past spectators on the beach, when the leeward hull implodes and I power into the depths...)

toddster, nothing to worry about, put it on your to-do-project list, unplug vent. Also on your to-do-list, take sander as in above post with 800 grit waterpaper and remove oxidization, I don't think the grey discoloration can be removed but that white haze on the surface will disappear leaving a great finish. Done any sailing yet? 😎

Yes, I've gotten a couple of sunday afternoons in on the water. Haven't found any real issues with the rigging & etc. but the winds have been mostly light. Hopefully we will soon shift from our feckless east wind winter weather pattern into the more constant west wind summer pattern. The few moments when the wind has actually picked up have been a blast. Literally going from taking a nap on the tramp on a long tack to hiking out and trying to hold it together while launching into hyper-warp. Then back again.
Also, the nearest boat ramp is inside a lagoon with a long narrow entrance channel that faces due east. If there's a graceful way to sail out of that into an east wind, I haven't found it yet.

Um... any tips on exactly how one unplugs a vent? Do you have to take the tramp and frame off?

edited by: toddster, Apr 13, 2010 - 11:20 AM

Um... any tips on exactly how one unplugs a vent? Do you have to take the tramp and frame off?

easy~! if you have any ports.. drill a very small hole in it.. done! (i did this myself)

New Dumb Question: How stiff is the frame supposed to be?

Today I beat up into 2-3 ft breaking swells for about 7 miles (setting up a couple of sweet long reaches coming home) and the rig got a pretty good "shake down." Sometimes, bouncing over the swells, it looked like the two hulls were "wig-wagging" a couple of inches, with respect to one another. That is, moving out of synch in the up-down plane. Is this normal? I got busy and forgot to worry about it. Didn't sink.

Again, there was quite a pressure buildup in both hulls, when I took out the plugs - obviously neither has a clear vent.

Um... what's this thingy? This small piece of rigging has been down in the bottom of the boat bag, but doesn't seem to have any obvious place on the boat. I've been through the manual but don't see anything quite like it...

Seems to sail OK without. (?)

Pretty sure that is an old hobie after market boom vang. They stopped adding them and even the attachement point on the boom sometime in teh early 80s I think. I don't think any cat really uses them anymore.

D.

edited by: Wolfman, Jul 26, 2010 - 12:33 AM