New to me Hunter 26 clean/refit

[Crazy Dave Condon]

On color coordination of lines, look under boat information at the 260 as it was standard with all waterballast. Solid red for jib halyard and solid blue for main halyard.
The reason for color coordination was primarily for the new sailors who lacked sailboat terminology till they learned it

 

[BrianJ]

Thanks for everyone’s comments and replies. I tried to pick out a color scheme but availability and price ended up deciding for me. I have a few projects in the works that I’ll throw up in a week or two.

 

[Thaniel]

This week we had a warm day and I opened the boat and started looking at how to install the dept finder. The previous owner installed a swing out board to mount the compass (without connecting up the compass light wiring). For now I figured it's a good place to try for the dept finder. I didn't mind drilling holes into the added board as I'll likely be revising that anyway.

Still more to do but it has a home for now.

I also looked at the broken tiller extension. Apparently this is not original as there was only one screw holding it down.

And it was clear why, the hole spacing is different in the tiller.

After some looking on the web I finally realized what is often sold as a "universal joint" is just a piece of flexible rubber ("I don't think that word mean what you think it means"). I had pictured a ball in socket affair. Glad I figured that isn't the way it works before buying one. I guess people like the flexible rubber thing but it doesn't sit right with me. Especially since it appear the rubber degrades and breaks off in a fairly short time (as mine did at some point in it's life, loosing the whole extension) I may as well just lash a piece of tubing to the tiller with some rope. Yah I see there are some real universal joint versions out there. May look at that later.

One of the big issues left before the trip, that is drawing close quickly, is the trailer fender. Decided to buy the fender part instead of fabricating it out of flat stock. Running out of time and it's not been warm enough to enjoy being outside. But that leaves me needing all he mounting brackets/steps. Katherine had the great idea of taking the rear one from the RH side and using it on the front left. Sure enough all 4 of the brackets/steps are the same. Well except for the mounting for the clearance light. We did exactly that. Drilled a few holes for the clearance light and voila, looks factory original at the front.

For the back, since it didn't need a light, I fabricated some angle brackets with the same hole pattern and lengths on the "L" as the factory brackets. I also made a new center support bracket. Ran out of energy and time but there is just need a little more and that needs to be done.

 

[Doug J]

Recommend Rust-Oleum cold galvanizing compound. I used it on my 94' trailer. It's been holding up real well. I sprayed my whole trailer with it after I fully restored it.
Hunter 26 Owner Modifications and Upgrades

 

[Thaniel]

Update for this week

 

[Doug J]

So.... how did it trailer? Do you have pics of the boat in the water? Did the brakes work good?

 

[Doug J]

I just reviewed your posts and see you already posted pics of the boat in the water. But more would be nice
Also, I don't know if you have gone to the Hunter owners resources section of this site, but you'll find there the H26 owners manual that has some good diagrams that should help. Also, checkout the 260 manual. It is better quality, and much information is similar to the 26.

Looking forward to seeing what else you do to your boat! No pressure

https://sbo.sailboatowners.com/downloads/Hunter_26_82584071.pdf
HunterOwners.com downloads

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

@Thaniel @Doug J
Thaniel if you want me to show you how and where to put the depth finder, I can giving you two distict choices. Remember I am only over an hour from you and you have my contact info.. I am very much surprised you never called. I helped to design the boat and even sold nearly a quarter of the boats built. There is no charge but only helping out. One thing I was told, the wise old sailors have alot of experience and know how. I am now 70

Dave Condon

 

[Thaniel]

So.... how did it trailer? Do you have pics of the boat in the water? Did the brakes work good?

It trailer well. We pulled it 800 miles to where we are. Only issue I have is when people pass fast the air pushes the boat a bit. It’s much less if going at a similar speed and the go by slowly

brakes are a bit too good. During a quick stop (not a panic stop by any means).The trailer tires squealed as the t was taking too much of the load trying to stop both trailer and truck. I’ll have to see if it’s adjustable.

I just reviewed your posts and see you already posted pics of the boat in the water. But more would be nice
Also, I don't know if you have gone to the Hunter owners resources section of this site, but you'll find there the H26 owners manual that has some good diagrams that should help. Also, checkout the 260 manual. It is better quality, and much information is similar to the 26.

Looking forward to seeing what else you do to your boat! No pressure

https://sbo.sailboatowners.com/downloads/Hunter_26_82584071.pdf
HunterOwners.com downloads

Yes the only owners section is great. Read so much over there.
Attached are some pics of it n the water. And yes there is an alligator next to the boat in the shot looking down it.

 

[CaptainRan]

My depth finder is under the rear berth near the bilge pump, fyi.

 

[Thaniel]

@Thaniel @Doug J]
I am very much surprised you never called. I helped to design the boat and even sold nearly a quarter of the boats built. There is no charge but only helping out. One thing I was told, the wise old sailors have alot of experience and know how. I am now 70

Dave Condon

Hi Dave. So far everything I've run into on the boat I've been able to find threads where you have already answered the question or a post in the owners mods covered it. Haven't had any new unsolved issues yet. When I do you know who I'll be asking

My depth finder is under the rear berth near the bilge pump, fyi.

Thanks. Looked like that is the preferred place.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

do you wa nt suggestions where to install the thru hull for your depth finder? There is an old trick without drilling that hole. Yes I would like to sail with you if yoou ever want company.

 

[Thaniel]

do you wa nt suggestions where to install the thru hull for your depth finder? There is an old trick without drilling that hole. Yes I would like to sail with you if yoou ever want company.

I’ll let you know when we go to smith mountain lake perhaps we can get together then.
Our depth finder isn’t anything fancy. It’s just a fish finder with GPS. The transducer is designed to be transom mounted in the water. I mounted it to the inside of the hull with wax like others described in the forum. It t seems to be working though

I temporarily ran the wiring to the marine radio for power and used painters tape to stick-it to the walls. I was serious about bailing wire and duct tape. More about where else those have been applied later.

 

[Thaniel]

The winds are a bit high today so we haven’t left the marina. But the last few days have been work on the boat in the morning and then sail then get supplies or hang out with the other boat owners in the marina. It’s been really busy. But before we got to all this there were repairs done before leaving home. Let me see you f I can remember some of them

The first up was finishing installing the fender brackets I made.

Then replaced the broken clearance lights. Didn’t replace the whole wire harness on the trailer yet. Just a quick and dirty twist and tape job for now. But I brought the new harness, if it becomes a problem. Also put a connector on backup solenoid and mating connector on the truck side.

the masthead light didn’t work when tested so I removed it and cleaned it. Then I added a bracket and a pair of red clearance lights (each at a 45 degree for side and rear
Visibility for when we trailer at night). Plan is to connect it to the mast head wiring but - to + so that it won’t light with the mast light but on the trailer I can connect the power in reverse and it’ll light. Of course the masthead light being a standard light would also light. So I add a diode to it’s wiring. Worked great in test and I soldered it all together. A few days later I installed it and it didn’t work. I was getting ground to the light but no power to either the anchor or steam light. A very long story short the deck connector quit working on both power leads at the same time. Unexpected but was good to find the problem. Below is the connector disassembled.

So need a new deck connector. But there was no more time and I used alligator clip leads to connect it to my trailer harness. I think the light looks great. Gets the lighting legal and the more visibility the better

we also removed the standing rigging and lifelines from the boat to decrease chafe and drag over the 12 hr drive I’m sure there is more that we did but it’s all a blur now.

 

[Thaniel]

We have now sailed for a total of about 28 hours over 5 days. It hasn’t been without issues and more repairs needed. Isn’t a problem as original plan was to do most of the repairs while on vacation. Glad we did a bunch in advance but there were still more things.

The first day after sailing we went to dock under motor power an just as we were getting to some tight spots the steering stopped responding right. I suspected the motor to tiller link but a quick glance an it looked fine. So we quickly grab the closest t-end dock. Upon inspection we found the bracket that. Clamped to the tiller for the motor link had slid aft. I might mention I tried pulling up the motor under sail and it didn’t clear the water. Laying over it created a bunch of drag causing my helmsman to shout put it back down. So the motor to tiller link got a lot more work out the ever planned. To fix I relocated the bracket back to it’s proper location but found the hose clamp inadequate. Out comes the handyman’s secret weapon duct tape. It only needed to keep it from working its way down so should work. Plan was to buy some ubolts to replace the hose clamps. Tried twice to buy them and keep getting too small of ones. So the duct tape is still there. But on day 2 we motor in and park in a very tight slip beautifully. On day 5 however, after an 8 hour non stop sail we come into the marina and soon I notice the tiller going weird again. Lifting up on the tiller seems to make it worse. I glanced at the duct tape and all looks fine there. So I hold the tiller low and we motor on and park. The next morning I see that the plastic spacer at the top rear bolt is supposed to keep the tiller from dropping too low. But the spacer has totally disintegrated. And also the side plastic plates. They were on my repair list but didn’t get it done. And I left the parts at home (oops). So I wrap the bolt
With rope and wrap the end of the tiller with rope and it looks like that’ll work for the rest of this trip.

On day one a couple of the sail slugs, which are plastic, had broken. We went out another time and lost another despite being gentle on the sail. So off to the marine store. I brought a slug with me and a Clevis to match up. The slugs were 5/16 but they had 2 styles, Oddly with the same part number, I guess old vs new revision. So I bought both. Turns out my boat had a mix of old and new designs. Weird. All the Same now though.

Another repair was fixing the broken bolt on the front cleat. Luckily it wasn’t stuck and only took a little effort to thread out the old bit.

 

[Thaniel]

Well just a short note to let everyone I haven't disappeared. The boat has done it's job and taken us on a fantastic vacation. However we've made it home, emptied the boat and put it aside for now. I now have very happy thoughts of our sailing adventure when I see it.

Before we take it on another trip, though I don't know when that will be off hand, I'm sure we will drag it out and do some more repairs and upgrades. We already started a to-do-list and it's pretty long already .

One final story. On our drive home at a gas stop, many hours from home, I noticed the lower hinge pin had disappeared. No idea how that came out as I've never removed it. But couldn't leave the rudder waging about potentially breaking something. So I inserted an 1/4" drive socket extension and duct taped so it couldn't get out. New hinge pin added to the shopping list....

 

[kappykaplan]

So I inserted an 1/4" drive socket extension and duct taped so it couldn't get out.

 

[CaptainRan]

Well just a short note to let everyone I haven't disappeared. The boat has done it's job and taken us on a fantastic vacation. However we've made it home, emptied the boat and put it aside for now. I now have very happy thoughts of our sailing adventure when I see it.

Before we take it on another trip, though I don't know when that will be off hand, I'm sure we will drag it out and do some more repairs and upgrades. We already started a to-do-list and it's pretty long already .

One final story. On our drive home at a gas stop, many hours from home, I noticed the lower hinge pin had disappeared. No idea how that came out as I've never removed it. But couldn't leave the rudder waging about potentially breaking something. So I inserted an 1/4" drive socket extension and duct taped so it couldn't get out. New hinge pin added to the shopping list....

Just remember to get all that duct tape off ASAP or it will be a disaster. Really happy for you, you worked hard to get to the payoff.

 

[Jimmy]

All my rudder bolts have nylock nuts never had anything like that happen

 

[Doug J]

Shouldn't have come loose, let alone fall out. Hope it wasn't some mischievous person in a parking lot somewhere.