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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 4:43 pm 
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Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Thu May 19, 2011 12:47 pm
Posts: 4
Hi everyone, I've been lurking here for the last couple of weeks while I wait for my new boat's registration to come in and the weather in Utah to be more favorable. Lots of great information here, and a seems like a nice community with some knowledgeable and more importantly friendly experts on board.

I always remembered my Grandpa having an H16, but I never sailed on it as a youngster. I've come to the hobby from that nostalgia and my lifelong sport of model sailplanes. So I have a great appreciation for wind power (or I suppose you could argue that sailplanes are powered by gravity and uneven solar heating of the earth's surface, but that's what causes wind anyway, so... I digress. :) )

Anyways. I wasn't sure I would like sailing as I've never been a fantastic water treader (do just fine with a life vest on though), so I bought a '71 H14 locally for $450 with a very nice trailer that looks like it could just as easily haul an H16. Not a speck of rust on it. The boat's hulls are sound, no soft spots to be found, and the white vinyl tramp looks to be in great shape. The sail seems a little long in the tooth, but isn't torn or anything. Last weekend I practiced rigging her for the first time, and with the aid of the info on this site, everything went together rather much more easily than I expected from looking at the sail bag.

Couple of questions, though. From reading through the info on rudders, it seems there are three major groups of rudder types, and that H14 and H16 rudders are interchangeable. Plastic (white) Foam core glass (white) and EPO carbon (black). I'm sure that mine are plastic, because they look awful. Yellowed and scratched, and two spots on the port side of the port rudder where it looks like someone sprayed some sort of epoxy and let it run down the side. Blech. What is the preferred method of refinishing these? Wet sand and repaint? Is there a preferred paint type?

There are a few chips and dings in the deck lips, are these best just to leave or can they be repaired with some glass mat, lip-shaped molds and some release agent?

The boat has white hulls and yellow decks. From what I've read, one could order bicolored boats like this, but the hulls were most definitely orange originally. Were there ever orange hulled boats with yellow decks? Sounds like a weird combo to me. In any case, beyond minor cosmetic upkeep, I don't want to get into restoring her whole hog, as I want this to be a $450 see-if-I-like-sailing boat. One thing seems certain from my research, there is a lot more historical interest in the 16 than in the 14. I can't find a sail color chart by year for the fourteen. Unless they're the same as the 16.

Last question (I promise) my traveler looks as if it has been replaced with the type that looks like the H16's, but the pullies and V jam cleats are still on the frame rail. Would it be advisable to drill these out and remove them? I'm still a little mystified on how the traveler works in relation to the mainsheet. I get how the blocks work, but the sheet going through the cam cleat on the traveler still baffles me.

Thanks again for reading my rambling diatribe and for any ideas or responses!

-Austin


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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 6:00 pm 
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Hobie Approved Guru

Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2003 7:11 pm
Posts: 5197
Location: Detroit, MI
Rudders - plastic, just sand them in the direction of water flow with progressively finer grits (dry). You'll take some of the outer discoloration off, but in the end, they're still plastic rudders. However, I wouldn't recommend spending big $ on replacements. It's more important that the lockdown mechanism works and there's minimal play in the system (slop). That will make much more of a difference than new rudders.

Don't worry about the dings in your deck lip. I'm guessing they're cosmetic, unless you post pictures otherwise.

Colors - at one point, you could order from 12 different colors and decks / hulls could be made to order. Your yellow decks were probably goldenrod when new. Goldenrod decks / orange hulls were a popular combination.

Sail patterns are generally the same as the 16, but since there are fewer sail panels, the same named patterns are slightly different on the 14.

The original traveller on 14s and 16s was controlled by two lines, each tied to the traveller car and going to the V-jam cleats. It sucked, and I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did in production (5 or 6 years).

In the early 70's, it was replaced with a roller-bearing traveller car. If your boat doesn't have one, you need to get one. You can remove the old V-jam cleats.


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 8:40 pm 
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Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Thu May 19, 2011 12:47 pm
Posts: 4
Excellent info, thank you MBounds. I did as you suggest, and sanded the ugly yellowed clear coat off of my rudders. They are still nicked and gouged, but the bone white color is like a miracle compared to what it looked like before.

I discovered that my tiller handle is actually a telescoping type for hiking. That's a nice surprise. You just twist the handle clockwise to lock it in place and counter to free it.

Finally got the boat out to the lake today and put theory and knowledge to the test, to make the theoretical the practical. Two newbs, armed with only the internet and a cheap boat were able to successfully sail it out of the marina, out into the lake, discover that the weather was quickly taking a turn for the horrible, tacked it through 3 foot rollers and boogied back to base, where immediately after the sail was lowered, a howling 40 mph plus wind started blasting the marina. The two footers quickly became four footers, crashing over the jetty. The powerboaters were all yelling at each other, jockeying for position to get the heck out of dodge, and meanwhile, my buddy and I quietly packed up our stuff on the beach and drove away. Very fun, successful, albeit short first sail! Thanks again for all the great info here, I've got the Hobie bug, and can't wait to take her out again in climes more clement!

-Austin


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