reducing beam on HC16

Hi, I am currently customizing a HC16 as a Rowing/Sailing Cat.

The rigging will change but I am at the beginning.
I took apart the beams reduced them of 30cm each side (sorry for the metric system I am french) this will give a total beam of 1m60 for the platform which is suitable to install a proper sculling position.

1) I now need to reassemble the platform and i have a few question. It seems the rivets where stainless steel 4,8 x 16 mm.
However i now see that there are many possibilities (large head, waterproof, cupronickel ...) could you advise ?
Would going to aluminium rivets (maybe larger diameter) do ? There is the corrosion problem also ... ?

2) Because the front beam is curved, the extrimities now do not fit well in the casting. Is it possible to straigthen them using a
vise and heating ?

Thanks for your help
JD

Rivets are stainless steel or Monel.

Straightening the front crossbeam will be difficult. Cold forming may crack or collapse the extrusion. Heat will remove the temper - but that may not be an issue since you have removed the sailing loads by turning it into a sculling platform.

Pack the extrusion with sand to keep it from collapsing, use heat sparingly and go slowly, preferably with a hydraulic bender.

Your other option would be to find another rear crossbar and corner castings and use a rear crossbar in the front. Since the rear crossbars are not curved, you shouldn't have any alignment issues.

sm

From the first post, I got the impression that the goal was to be able to row it or sail it.

Understood, but it's a custom job either way you look at it. Probably easier to figure out how to rig a mast step on a rear crossbar than to figure out how to successfully straighten a front crossbar. Drive over it with the wheel of your car maybe?

sm

Thanks for all the tips.
Yes it is a ROW+SAIL boat and keeping the front beam curved structure (with the reinforcement bar below) sounds a good idea
to hold the mast.
If I were rich I would replace the cross beams by Carbone tube, maybe later the result sounds worth it.

You cannot seriously be considering the original mast and sail plan on a platform that's only 1.6m (5.25 feet) wide?

The boat will be very unstable - and almost impossible to right if it does capsize. Even a Hobie 14's rig would be large for something that narrow.

Hi , no of course the rigging will be completely new
it will be a 6m60 standalone carbon mast with furling sail (no boom) + a code0 genaker
Thanks for worrying for me !

You can't use a rear frame member up front as the corner castings are different. Because of the way the pylons are set in the hulls, if you use rear castings up front the corners face the wrong way, I'm turning a 14 into a row boat, narrowed by 2 feet+.

_________________
JKK
83 yellow/ white decks Hobie 14 Corando turbo
82 yellow hulls Hobie 16 Cat Fever
84 yellow hulls hobie 16 Yellow Nationals
plus a few extras that I'm restoring

I think a rear crossbar (with rear corner castings) could be used in the front as long as you didn't need to install the side bars. If you still wanted to use the side bars, then you are right, it wouldn't work since the openings for the side bars would be facing the wrong direction (forward instead of aft).

sm

Thanks again for the help.
Yes a rear cross bar could be installed up on front. However
as there will still be a mast i think it is a good idea to keep the
arched cross bar (and the steel bar below).
I sanded out some of the thikness on the bottom side and
was able to fit it
There will be less constraint so I hope I will be good ...
JD