Day 1:
Well I'm back up in MI now, after a really fun week-long road trip from Florida.
Went out to the farm today, really more of a survey trip, to see what I'm in for to get the family H16 back on the water. (OK finally got the pic size issue taken care of...)
Background - My dad bought this boat around about 1986 or 87 by my best guess, but it might have been earlier. I was a really little kid at the time. Finding the serial number on the transom today reveals that it is indeed a year older than me (CCMP2964M80I). We sailed it fairly often on Lake St Clair, and inland lakes here in MI and in Minnesota for a brief stint. Then back to MI for most of the 90s.
After I got into college, my dad and I really didn't get much time on it anymore, he was crewing on bigger boats and I was away most summers on internships or foreign studies. So instead of storing it alongside the house, we moved it to the family farm where it was out of the way. The last year it was in the water was 2002 as evidenced by the most recent tag on the hull.
Here's how I found it today:
Fortunately my grandfather keeps a shed back there stocked with a decent array of tools necessary for tackling the vines and low branches that have hemmed it in - my weapons of choice for the afternoon's "yard work":
Mast is all aluminum, was the easiest part to extract from the overgrowth (my trusty VW GTI, from now on referred to as Sheila, was essential to my success today):
I remember it being a lot heavier...
So after spending the better part of an hour cutting the hobie out I was able to start rotating the trailer, strapped the boat back down to it, and pulled out the blocks that were holding the wheels off the ground. It moved, but was reluctant... (more on this in a bit) so I figured more muscle was needed, and I pulled Sheila around.
Here's where the fun started: Even though its been parked about a quarter mile from the nearest road, under dense trees, and behind a cornfield... dear old Dad locked the hitch...
So I improvised (Sheila will be the 3rd VW towing this boat, we had an 87 Golf and Jetta back in the day, but mine has about 3x the HP and Torque... having a turbo make towing fun!):
And here's the culprit for the reluctance to move:
I figured the tires would be toast, the right one is totally rotted out along part of the sidewall, the left appears to be OK but will also be replaced next week for good measure (and safety).
So I put the pads back on the trailer for the mast, the clamp on the back, and loaded it up there for the time being.
I felt around on the hulls, tapping, listening, and all appears solid. I'll do a much more thorough inspection when I get started on the cleaning (possibly tomorrow, but more likely Monday), which will take a few days at least. I pulled the tramp and all the lines out of the sail box (which has been in Dad's garage nice and dry, and out of the sun, all this time), and that is looking good at first inspection.
So next step will be the cleaning and surveying what needs attention before I start putting the rigging and tramp back together.
