Restoration of 1992 H17 Sport by its 17th Birthday

Rather than creating many new topics, I'm starting a single topic to cover my restoration of a 1992 H17 Sport. I'm hoping this forum topic will serve two purposes. The first purpose is to provide a place for anyone who would like to give advice about what I'm doing. The second purpose is to provide motivation to meet my goal of sailing it again by its 17th birthday in April, which is rather aggressive for me.

Here is a photo just after I purchased the boat a few weeks ago. The green sail is garbage and the pink & white sail isn't much better. The trampoline is not terrible, but it is a two-piece vinyl trampoline that I don't find very attractive. All of the rigging is thrown in a box and I know some pieces are missing. The rudders are very odd and look like they were home made or something (not shown yet). But, the hulls are very nice except for normal oxidation from being stored outside. They have no cracks in the wing sockets and have only two or three gelcoat scratches that need to be touched up.



My first step was to completely disassemble the boat. The hulls and mast are in my garage. All of the other parts are now in my shop downstairs. This will allow me to work on the boat through the winter months.

I have the Hobie assembly manuals, a copy of the "Recharging Megawatt" article from the May/June 2006 issue of Hotline, and this forum for reference material. I'm looking forward to this project!

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Don

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Adams17
H17 Sport, Wave

I've been working on removing the stickers from the hulls. A heat gun and 3M Adhesive Remover worked very well for everything, except for the stripe on the starboard bow. One of the previous owners tried to remove this part of the stripe. I have no idea what they used, but it sort of disintegrated the stripe and what is left is almost impossible to get off. It's like the stripe, the adhesive, and the gelcoat are bonded together.

When I try a heat gun, what's left of the stripe starts to turn more of a brown color and scraping doesn't do very much. I am rather bummed about it because I was hoping to get everything off and have the option of not having to put a stripe on again. Looks like I will have to go with plan B, which is to put another stripe over the top of this when I'm done polishing the hulls.



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Don

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Adams17
H17 Sport, Wave

Probably a long shot, but did you try Acetone? Apply liberaly and let set for 45-60 seconds, then apply light pressure with a swirling motion, the glue should ball up.

If that doesn't work looks like you'll be sanding.

Nice boat!

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Sheet In...Max Out
www.fleet297.org
sailflatlands at gmail dot com

Well, I tried the acetone. It helped a little, but not enough to justify the amount of acetone required per inch of stripe. So, I resorted to wet sanding and that finally removed it.

Here is a picture of one of the hulls immediately after the first pass of wet sanding. When it was wet, I said, "Wow, look at that!". When it dried, I said, "What did I do to my hulls?!?!" I just have to have faith that the yet-to-be-done wet sanding, rubbing compound, Finesse It, and marine wax will make them look good again.



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Don

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Adams17
H17 Sport, Wave

I'm finished with the bottoms of the hulls! I went through 600-, 800-, 1000-, and 1500-grit wet sanding. At that point, I thought I was making a big mistake because the hulls looked worse than if I would have left them alone.

Then I used a Milwaukee polisher, as was suggested in another forum here, and used the 3M Extra Cut Compound. When done, I still thought, maybe I should have left the hulls the way they were. But, then I applied the 3M Finesse-It. That's the point when the hulls finally started looking better than before I started. And to finish, I used the 3M Marine Polish and here's the end result:



I'm very happy with how they turned out; however, I am a little bit disappointed about the sticker, um, "ghosts" for lack of a better word. In my ignorance, I thought that wet sanding and polishing would make these all but disappear. But, that is not the case. They are very visible.



So, that is another problem to solve -- What do I do about replacement stickers or finding stickers that will cover the area without looking bad?

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Don

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Adams17
H17 Sport, Wave

Well from the pictures, the hulls still look to be in very good shape for their age.



I doubt you'll be able to find replacement stickers, and it would be a big area to try and cover over. Maybe have a fiberglass shop spray a super thin coat of gelcoat over the entire hull.

sm

My first round of new parts:



Now I can replace the home-made, wooden rudders that were on the boat with real Hobie rudders!

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Adams17
H17 Sport, Wave

Very, very nice Don! You have done an outstanding job on the hulls!! Next time people talk about panting hulls and things like that, I'm going to send them to this thread.

Nice one!

A couple of years out sailing and those 'ghosts' will hardly be visible.

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Sail Revolution
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