Help with refurb on Pre-73 H14

Proud recipient of a very old Hobie 14 (#1702) and could use some help planning her refurb.

Pics of the boat are at http://www.bluecollarsailor.com/hobie/ and show the issues it has. I have 6 questions matching the photos on that page.

1. The outside of the port hull was sliced through by (what I'm guessing was) a saw blade on a weed eater. The slice is about 18 inches long and full thru for most of its length. I figured to dremel-grind it out and fill it with West Systems epoxy & angel hair mix. My question is whether a surface repair is good enough or if I should cut an inspection port on the top or side of the hull to add backing or interior support? Is there enough stress there to warrant it? Hate the idea of putting a port where one's happily not been for over 30 years.

2. Worse part of the boat is that about 3 feet of the forward port hull has had the extruding "lip" ground off from damage. Previous owner reported she was leaking in this area so its thru the seam. I plan on West System'ing it too, and hoped someone might offer a tip on how to re-fabricate the lip? Thought about building up layers of thin matting & epoxy and sanding it to shape, but not sure how purdy it would look. Any advice on that? Should any other reinforcement be added?

3. Serial number on the boat is a wonderfully old #1702. I take this to be in the 1971-72 range. Can anyone offer a closer prediction of manufacture date?

4. Second bad hull issue is damage and delamination around the port stern. The corner is ground-down from damage with delam leading inward. Less obvious is a 'mushrooming up' of the hole for the rudder pin. Aside from grind and surface repair, should I try and drill it out and add some sort a bushing to reinforce the hole? Looks like the gungeons are taking the stress...

5. The front crossbar has 6 patterned holes on both its port and starboard sides, just foreward of the centerline of the bar. Could anyone tell me what they might have been used for? At some point in its life the boat was retro-fitted with a turbo jib; maybe related?

6. Sail number does not match the hull number. In its production configuration, would this number have matched? If I buy a new main seems it ought to match, yes?

Any nostalgic advice anyone could lend this virgin H14 custodian would be sincerely appreciated!

Jonathan

Wow! That IS a project boat, isn't it? Well, lemme help where I can.


I wouldn't hesitate to put a port there. Then I'd clean the inside of that hole really well and put a layer or two of fiberglass on the inside. Then I think you'd be okay just putty an epoxy / high-density filler mix (flox) in the hole after that, but alone I don't think the flox would be strong enough.


I think that's all you really can do, is do your best with a few layers of glass in that area. You'll probably have to sand down the existing deck a bit to give the glass a lot of surface area on the deck to grab and then to fair it even.


If the deck is soft from delamination, you'll want to fix that. There are lots of threads and something in the FAQ about soft spots. I don't think the pin is taking much extra stress from the soft deck because the bracket on the stern just below the deck takes most of that load, but Matt Miller will be more helpful there.


The only thing I can think of is traveler tracks, but then why would they have been removed?


They don't always necessarily match. Just whatever was lying around at time of shipping is my understanding. I'm lucky enough to have H16 hull#3404, sail #3403 and I, too, have been wondering just what I'm going to do when I get a new sail. Hehehe

Good luck!

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Warm regards,

Jim