Clean bottom, what a difference!

Status
Not open for further replies.
May 25, 2004
958
Hunter 260 Pepin, WI
My bottom paint was mostly non-existent. When I was sailing last year it seemed that everything on the lake was faster than me. A canoe whose owner spread their jacket open could sail by. I was really cursing the sailing characteristics of a H260.

The boatyard that did my bottom over the winter stated the center board chamber was packed with Zebra mussels. I guess I had delayed the task a bit long.

I noticed on my first sail of the season how much faster Halie moved. This past weekend, busy Memorial Day, we had very steady 12 to 15 MPH winds. (In the mid-West we don’t get Knots for wind speed with the weather report.) I was sailing on a full jib and a reefed main. There wasn’t anybody out there of any size that I didn’t pass. My opinion of the H260 sailing characteristics has been renewed.

In all the years that I have owned boats I’ve never seen such a radical change just from getting the bottom done.

While I don’t race, I certainly don’t like having the slowest boat on the water. Having owned the H260 for ten years now, I also know how to trim and balance the rig for the best performance. I can’t discount that point. When I first moved from a boat I also knew very well, I tried all the tricks from that boat on the H260 with great frustration.

I guess my main point is that I am a very happy H260 owner, and I had a great Memorial Day sail.
 

Kivalo

.
Jun 5, 2011
116
Hunter 260 Owasco Lake
Zebra mussels suck! I scraped a bunch off this season too.

Brad
s/v KIVALO
 
Dec 25, 2009
269
American 26 & MFG Challenger 12 American 8.0, Challenger 12 Lake Pepin, Wisc.
In Iowa and Minnesota, when you store your boat in "COLD" storage, over winter, most of them will fall right off according to Dave above. The ones in the center board box were most likely dead and just jammed in there to tight to fall out last winter.

I'm glad I don't have any of those underwater openings in my hull...

Tom...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.