Just brought a 1986 Hunter 23 home - The rebuild!

[Roughsawn]

Howdy ya'll!
Just wanted to say thank you for the best sailboat site on the 'net! Literally, I've read thousands of posts on this forum.
A bit of background. I grew up in NE Ohio, about 1 hour from Erie but now reside in central OH. Have been powerboating over the years, but the only sailing experience I have is in Key West on a Sunfish, about the time the boat I bought was built!
I've always been fascinated by the laid back ways of the folks I've met that sailed, but as a younger man, didn't really want to live life in the slow lane.
Fast forward 30 years, and I'm ready. Kick back and enjoy the slow lane. Its a go!

I'd been looking at trailer-sailors for 6 months or so. Happened to be in Cincinnati for work one day and spent my lunch break looking at a couple boats at Strictly Sail. One spoke to me. I have no affiliation with the place BTW, but after a couple months I kept bringing the pics up on my computer I took of that old Hunter. Dunno why. It needs work. But it spoke....

Now, I'm not afraid of bringing home a project, the last one was a 1965 Airstream. Barn fresh. I became the 3rd owner. It was very neglected, but not abused. Ended up beautiful. We camped in it for years until it was sold.

This boat certainly needs work as well. Neglected, but not abused, and pretty complete. The prior owners didn't modify anything much from factory from what I can tell, but didn't maintain it either. I have bit of a project ahead if we are to splash it this spring, but it's still January.
Short term goals are to (learn to) sail some of the smaller inland lakes (ponds?) around central OH and in a year or two take some time on the coast of Erie.

Anyway, Thank You! This place is pretty great! I'm sure I'll have some stupid questions moving forward, but hopefully in the future, I can help someone else with their questions.
Dave

Edited to add a pic. I'm the guy strapping the rigging to the mast before the 100 mile trip home on 1986 tires...

 

[sail sfbay]

Congratulations on your new boat and welcome to the forum!!

Driving on 1986 tires???? Sounds like you have the skills to tackle this new project. Please shows pics of your project and feel free to ask questions.

 

[Roughsawn]

Thanks! And i dunno for sure those are 1986 tires, but judging from the dry rot and cracking, they are. Surprisingly, the boat trailered just fine behind a Chevy 1500 for the 100 mile trip home, albeit at 55-60 mph..
Anyway, it will not be leaving the driveway without new tires and a good look into the surge brake system.

 

[sail sfbay]

Good the hear......good plan to replace new tires and check surge brakes.... recommend checking trailer lights, repack wheel bearings with grease and install buddy bearings with protectors.

 

[Whatfiero1]

Great boat hows the sails look? Probably good enough to learn on ,practice pulling mast up in yard and make a pulley system to easily pull the mast up and rig so it's not a chore every time. Watch out for power lines in your yard thou. when I had one I'd park far off at launch ramp and get boat rigged then back down ramp launch get out way and enjoy.

 

[rgranger]

The boat spoke to you. ‘Nuff said!

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Replace bearings and racers. 1.98 inch
Also check fender attachments to trailer.
Got your message. Will call. If changing tires, suggest tow vehicle be attached to trailer. Ask me about that

 

[Whatfiero1]

Replace bearings and racers. 1.98 inch
Also check fender attachments to trailer.
Got your message. Will call. If changing tires, suggest tow vehicle be attached to trailer. Ask me about that

Or remove boat. And do a thorough trailer inspection

 

[JamesG161]

I love the boats name...

MAI TOI

Welcome to SBO...

I saw a fun name too

YOT

They thought it sounded like Yacht... but it is TOY spelled backwards.
_____

I'm ready. Kick back and enjoy the slow lane.

The key essential is your adult drinks aboard.

Now your boat is Solar Powered too. Winds...
Jim...

 

[isaksp00]

Looks like my trailer model. I replaced the entire brake system from the surge coupler to the brakes themselves, boat was in the water. Cost maybe 200 or 250, but my whole system was totally rusted. Wasn't too hard, and my only (known) mistake was pushing the seal on the inside of the bearing assembly in too far so the grease wasn't contained. Only cost me the two new seals. I also replaced all bearings and races.

 

[Roughsawn]

Thought I'd post some progress pics. Been kinda slow going here as temps have been below freezing, and into the teens for a bit, but I've been able to strip some wood parts off and take them into work to refinish them. Very happy with the outcome so far! One pic shows her cabin in "as found" condition. Dirty, faded, stinky, etc...
The tiller looked as though it spent all of its 35 years outdoors and unloved (you can sorta see it in the cabin pic) And the floor panels were very dark and grungy. A good coat of stripper, some scrubbing with mineral spirits, sanding and new varnish cleaned the parts up nice!
I've removed a number of other trim parts and am gonna drag the galley in soon for a rebuild.
I think I have more fun off the clock at work now than on!

 

[kappykaplan]

Lookin' good @Roughsawn !

 

[Orbweaver]

I totally get the whole 'it spoke to me'! we definitely had that with our new to us 26.5

 

[CrispyCringle]

Awesome. Looking good. Nice looking wood.

 

[Roughsawn]

Ok, time for an update! The weather here in central OH is kinda starting to cooperate and I've been a bit busy between cold snaps and rain drops repairing this 'ol gal. First - The rain drops. I really could not see any water in the cabin, but I knew it was there. The lower part of the plywood bulkhead at the v berth has remained wet since the temps went above freezing, but I couldn't see any water in the locker in front of it. This one:

Being that the back side of this is tabbed in, I decided to get out the oscillating tool and remove some of the tabbing.
Wow.... What happened next is what would happen if i drilled a large hole in the hull while ON the water. Water! Gushing! I jumped overboard and grabbed the shop vac to get rid of all that water before the boat sank! On the trailer! Parked in the driveway!

Ended up sucking some 7 or 8 gallons water out of there!
But wait - it gets better!
Now my 16 gallon shop vac is half full of water. I drag it out into the cockpit and realize I have a dilemma here. There's no way I can get off the boat and lift this thing overboard. With the water in it, it's just too awkward. And there's no way to balance it on the 4ft ladder I use to get on and off the boat. But what's that I see? The cockpit drain! YES! I oriented the shop vac over the cockpit drain and removed the shop vac valve. WELL! Little did I know the cockpit drain was stopped up, and now all that dirty water flooded the cockpit.... @#$%! @#$%!!! @#$%!!!!!!!!
The remedy? - once empty, drag said shop vac to driveway and commence to (re)suck water out of cockpit.... A day in the life!
Anyway, Sunday I decided to check out the cock pit drain. What a mess. A plugged up, dry rotted, kinked vinyl hose connected to a galvanized reducer, galvanized coupling, and to the thru-hull. Once I cut that old vinyl hose off, I noticed that the thru hull was quite easy to turn in the hull. Not good. Grabbed a pipe wrench and large channel locks to try and remove the galvanized coupling from the bronze thru hull. It appears those parts were torqued together by Chuck Norris himself. No chance. Not even a budge. And I did not like the idea of dragging the torch in that small space so close to the hull, bad things, youtube worthy things, would entail.
Sawzall it is!
Cut that mess out of there just in front of the galvanized coupling.

After some thought, and a trip to Menards to pick up 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" and 1 1/2" by 1 1/4" Fernco couplings, a 2 foot piece of 1 1/2" "spa" tubing and a couple 1 1/2" 90's here's what I came up with. It's not complete yet. The thru hull needs reinstalled (too cold for the sealant today) and I need to add hose clamps to the joints, but rain is inbound this afternoon and I had to get something going until it warms up and quits raining. Don't want ANOTHER flood in the cockpit!. The quick and dirty:

Pretty happy with the set up so far. The spa tubing is not rigid like PVC, but not very flexible either. It's also sold in 2 ft lengths, so I didn't have to buy a whole roll of the vinyl tubing like the junk that was on there to begin with.
Grand total for this project - about $16.

 

[Roughsawn]

Also, I managed to get the galley refinished last week. The old, yellowed sink is now sporting a nice new coat of epoxy tub paint and the chipped old white melamine countertop was replaced with a piece of 30" x 48" laminate that I pickup cheap at Menards. The piece was pretty cracked, but enough usable to do this little top and the manager was more than happy to knock the price down to $8.

the before pic:

 

[Roughsawn]

Oh, I also have a question for ya'll. Here's looking at the cockpit drain from the cockpit:

Yeah, its still full of yuck from the shop vac incident mentioned above. I also found these in the drain hose:

The question - this boat has 2 screw holes that have been siliconed on either side of the drain in the "sump". Is/was there some type of strainer that fit in the sump from the factory? I'd really like to get something to keep junk like leaves (and hardware!) from falling down the drain hole. Pretty sure I could concoct something from the local hardware, just wondering what ya'll have done. Thanks!

 

[Doug J]

Galley looks nice

 

[kappykaplan]

Galley looks nice

 

[Roughsawn]

Great boat hows the sails look? Probably good enough to learn on ,practice pulling mast up in yard and make a pulley system to easily pull the mast up and rig so it's not a chore every time. Watch out for power lines in your yard thou. when I had one I'd park far off at launch ramp and get boat rigged then back down ramp launch get out way and enjoy.

Thanks! I think the sails will suffice for a bit. They certainly look original - main and jib. Kinda stiff feeling, yet slick. Did not find any rips or bad areas. Some staining, but expected. Stitching still looked good! Spread them out in the warehouse at work recently. They looked huge!