A few questions about a 1974 Hunter 25

kloudie1 · May 5, 2009

I have no help, Dave, only congratulations .. The original H 25 was my heartthrob .. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent looking at the brochures as I rested from engineering studies that year (74) before graduation! I loved crawling around in the new ones at the local dealer, thinking how nice it would be to have morning coffee looking out over the salt marsh! Turns out that by the time I could actually afford one, they’d quit making them. My ‘85 H 34 has some of those same lines and I love the way she looks! I am sure that you have a lot of stuff to learn and “improvements” to make, but what fun it will be!! (OK sometimes you won’t think of it as fun immediately)
Ya might check the rating of the motor mount itself .. My memory of that 25’s transom is that it is small and the plywood backing, if in fine shape, at the bracket should be fine for that load..

Steve Dion · May 5, 2009

Dave: We had a Hunter 25 back in 77-78. It was a great little boat. Our boat had a Honda 9.9 on it and it worked just fine. I do NOT remember having any special reinforcement for the o/b motor.

Personally I would not have used anything like 5200 and I would not try to seal it from the inside.

I suggest that you contact Hunter Marine to see if they can give you any insight on the torque. They are going to be your best source of factual information on this boat.

JoeWhite · May 5, 2009

I have a H 25.5 1984. It came with 9.9 2 stroke and I replaced it with 9.9 4 stroke and I did not replace the mount. 3 years later while I was towing with the trailer the mount broke - no I did not loose the engine. I replaced the mount with one that could hold up to a 25 HP. I had to drill new holes and I noticed that there was a steel plate inside where the motor mount was at. So I believe the location is already re-enforced. I am not concerned about it. However now I do remove the motor when I tow the boat.

jcherubini · May 10, 2009

I have a boat built probably the same month as yours, Dave. These boats were built at Marlboro NJ and yours was sold by either Sails Aweigh at Brick NJ or else the big dealer at Havre De Grace.

My plans for reworking the motor mount include removing it, replacing the bolts, and adding a 1/4" plate of fiberglass or G-10 on the outside of the transom for under each side of the mount. These can be 2" wide and about 16" long or whatever they have to be. I am just this week ordering the material from McMaster-Carr. These will get bedded in high-density putty to the hull and faired with a nice little fillet round all the edges. Inside, I may, or may not, add backing plates for the new SS carriage bolts and lock nuts and fender washers... but as the motor bracket is essentially always in compression and not in tension, reinforcing the transom under the bracket is of more help.

Most of the less-expensive brackets by Garelick or Eez-in are NOT rated for heavy (4-stroke) motors, so be aware. The West Marine bracket for 4-stroke is like twice the cost of those. At 7 to 9 hp I really do not know how much we care about this; it all comes down to the weight of the motor and how much you beat on it or what you smack underwater with the skeg. For now I will use the existing 1974 bracket and a lightweight 2-stroke (sorry, Al Gorians; find me a cleaner alternative I can afford and we'll talk!).

As for the 25.5 which superseded this model-- I have a friend with one and have been doing some work on it for him, and compared to the 1973-1982 Mk 1 this boat is built like junk. The outboard bracket is simply bolted to the skin of the transom (I looked. I looked again. My mouth fell open. I looked again. Then the curse words streamed out). For my friend I want to build it up exactly like I am doing mine. For the Mk 1 boats the factory glassed in a piece or two of 3/4" plywood. (Amazingly mine is not rotten. I am just pumping WEST epoxy into gaps and not worrying about it.) But you can just use a piece of epoxy-soaked plywood, installed with liberal use of 5200 to avoid water-attracting voids, and that should be enough to help spread the load on the transom.

fnuttersny · May 10, 2009

Hi Dave, I recently bought a Hunter27-1979. It has an 8hp Renault deisel that I got working but needs some attention. I had an 6hp Tohatsu extra long shaft from rhodes 22 that I mounted. My boat weighs 7000lbs. The outboard pushes the boat faster the the deisel is much quiter and extremly easy to handle. I think it weighs about 60lbs. I used a 3/4 ply doubler and 6 1/4-20 ss bolts with large area washers. I recently motored up Hudson from NYC against 3+ tide it was slow but acceptable I used both engines at 3/4 throttle. I thought about removing deisel but although not enough power for my conditions I will keep it. I have been using the outboard only recently and
find the 6hp 4stroke plenty to move boat around harbor and motor up and down river. This is in windy conditions and tide. It does not take up much room and does not dwarf the stern like 10 12 hp 4 strokes. If I only had 6hp OB I would probably not up grade to more power unless I did a lot of long distance motoring. The extra weight, size, bulk and cost ($3000+/-) are not worth it to me. I think you should be ok on lake with 6hp 4stk. extra long shaft. It also came with alternater. shipped to my front door for 1400 bucks.......cheers frank

jcherubini · May 10, 2009

Re: H25 Mk 1 keel bolts torque etc

Dave, about your keel bolts-- the PO of my boat had replaced the original 5200 with Boat Life caulk and had all the inevitable nightmares this led to, which led to his selling the boat to me. I loosened the keel bolt nuts and using the hardstands jacked the boat up about 7/8", removing all residue between the lead and the hull with a Dremel, chisels, acetone, and whatever it took. I had a support under the forward edge of the keel to keep it from teetering over forwards (which either didn't work well or wasn't needed). Then I sanded and pumped TWO tubes of 5200 quick-cure into it. And we cranked all the hardstands back down and squashed (most of) the 5200 between the hull and the keel. About one tube's worth oozed out. Some of it I was able to 'fair' with a putty knife but its being quick-cure 5200 it still oozed over the next few days. It's a little ugly now but I will smooth and fair it before painting.

I did find some evidence of (minor) delamination of the hull near the keel attachment area. Outside, this was gouged out and dried and awaits fairing compound. Inside, I drilled 1/8" pilot holes into the laminations around the keel bolts (this after the keel was reset) and with a syringe pumped WEST epoxy into the laminations-- the same thing I did to the balsa core of the deck. In only one place did it take any substantial filling. You can see where the delamination damage is because when you pump into one hole it comes out another. The contiguous holes were only about 1/2" apart and are now well filled.

Almost immediately after that (within 10 minutes) I removed the nuts completely and installed the backing plates I made out of G-10 (epoxy-impregnated fiberglass; be prepared to ruin every tool you cut or drill this with, including my cousin Dave's $110 tablesaw blade). These were bedded down with 5200-- but first I wrapped tape around the bolt shafts so that they can be adjusted in future-- otherwise the 5200 would bond to the threads and it'd be dead where it lies. Then I torqued up the nuts with a plain adjustable wrench (not even a long one). You are always cautioned with tightening too tightly against 5200-- 'you don't want to squeeze it all out', or 'leave a gasket', they say. Here I did not need a gasket-- the 5200 was only to fill voids in the woven roving under the plates and to add laminar stiffness. Carefully, but steadily, I tightened them till the next muscle would move them maybe another 1/8" or less. This was 2-3 weeks ago; yesterday I put a little more torque on them. At this point it is compressing the cured 5200 between the lead and the hull, which is what I want.

I made the backup plates only for the forward foursome of bolts (2 bolts per plate, longitudinally to allow water to pass between) as they hold the most and for the forward single one. The forward one is most crucial as it's the first to be shocked in a keel strike (why did your boat have no nut on THIS one??). I made an extra-big plate for this, limited only by how much flat area I had to bond it to (about 8" long and 3" wide). This and the other bolts all got extra-big fender washers and locknuts. I had some rainwater come down the hatch during a recent blow but the 5200 is holding water out from under the plates and all is well.

I don't believe in torque numbers for rigging or for keel bolts. Prescribing them is an instant lawsuit for someone. Every boat is different. I do not know the condition of your hull or keel, or what has been done to it, or what tools you're using, or what idiot messed with it before you did, or anything. In my opinion anyone with a set set of numbers is asking for and offering trouble. (My brother and I, both guitar players, tune rigs harmonically. Really.) Listen to your fear-- tighten them till you're afraid to tighten any more. Then 3 days or 3 weeks later do it again. That's my rule for everything. (No keels falling off or masts coming down so far!)

Let me know how you make out!

A few questions about a 1974 Hunter 25

Heelamonster

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kloudie1

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Heelamonster

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Steve Dion

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JoeWhite

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Heelamonster

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jcherubini

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fnuttersny

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jcherubini

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Heelamonster

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Heelamonster

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