New to me Hunter 26 clean/refit

[Fred]

Check this post for my H26 experience with remote control and motor linkage.

Repowering my H26

In my attempt to better align the motor I have added two spacers to the outside motor bracket. A 2 inch spacer goes a long way to aligning the motor.

forums.sailboatowners.com

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

I sent a private email to Thaniel I would be glad to physically help him as I live very close. However he knows where I am at. In fact I placed so many boats at his lake and even maintained the Boy Scout boats at Claytor lake Aquatics. I learned from the best in this industry as a young dealer as I learned early on from the wise old sailors. I was instrumental getting the water ballast boats built and was included in the design. You all have no idea as to contributions I gave to this industry

 

[caverun]

This post shows how I mounted the outboard remote box on my 240, would work on a 26. No holes in the boat, and easy to reach from the stern seats, I have a tiller so can easily steer from there with an extension.

Repowering my H26

I spoke to one H26 sailor this past summer who built new brackets that allowed for the motor to be mounted perpendicular to the boat. I do not recall exactly why he went through the effort but I believe that it had something to do with tilting the motor up parallel to the boat centerline and the...

forums.sailboatowners.com

 

[Thaniel]

Since we took it out on the water, not a lot's been done. Did some researching on remote controls. Thank you everyone for the ideas. Hopefully we will get more done on that in the next week. Saturday turned out to be in the 40's, the snow was melting and being Saturday I had some time. Decided to see what I good do about the gas tank locker cover. First I ground down all the extra resin spots and left over bits of wood.

Then laid up some fiberglass plywood and fiberglass

Not a perfect job but expect it'll do the trick.

Oh this morning we wake up to this:

It's so not funny

Thaniel

 

[CaptainRan]

Here are pictures of the remote control throttle and gear mechanisms for the Honda 9.9.

 

[Jimmy]

Here are pictures of the remote control throttle and gear mechanisms for the Honda 9.9.

Did you make that motor mount board?

 

[CaptainRan]

Did you make that motor mount board?

No, the boat came to me with the motor mount.

 

[bmorr]

Welcome to the great club of H26 owners, I have had a 96 for 10 years. I have found that I am dryer with the canvas cover up when overnighting. When in a slip with the breeze on the stern we had water blown in. so cut a higher hatch board and that solved the problem. I keep it under the rear bed until needed. As for storing the canvas cover and supports I fold them up and put it on the bed where its handy to put up at night. They are nice boats and you are going to have fun.
Oh, you might concider a solar panel to keep the battery up.
Bill

 

[Thaniel]

Feels like not much happened this week. But did get a few things done. The remote controls I ordered (used) arrived. I disassembled them for cleaning and improvement. Here is is cleaned up.

in addition to cleaning I replaced the key switch. Had planned on using the key switch from my boat but it was identical except missing the start pole from the switch. The start position is one of the key features (punny) I was happy to be adding. So new switch it was. I also had to add a wire for start to my boat wiring harness. Added a wire for electric choke too but probably won't be worrying about that. At least for now. So the control side is done except for the new control cables which should arrive Monday.

No picture but one of the hatch boards that was under the bed had been warped and cracked from being wet. Flattened it out and glued it. Picked it up to take a picture and realized it looks like all the others now. So not much to show. But it was an interesting repair.

I also measured and started planning for the motor to rudder link. Still not sure on the best setup. I'd like to have the bar on the cockpit side of the stern rail. Would love to minimize the amount of reaching behind the boat. But a bit tricky to get a linkage that won't bind up when the motor is tipped fully up. More on that as it develops.

Installed the gas tank locker cover and it's great and it is as strong or stronger than new. The one bad thing is it makes the surrounding area show even more that it needs a cleaning . Other than the actual crack it looks great. In the future, on a warm summer day, I can gel coat the crack to make it invisible (or nearly invisible). There are a number of small blemishes other place on the boat I'd like to touch up and figure it'd be easiest to do it all at once. Not sure I mentioned this, when I redid the wood core I drilled the holes in the wood core before fiber glassing. And I made them slightly larger. So the holes are completely encased in epoxy and water can't get to the wood core anywhere even if the bolts leak. Very happy with this repair.

\

Notice in the above picture that there is no snow in it. Most of melted and I actually got in the boat a few times. That was until this morning.

more snow :-(

 

[Roughsawn]

Great thread! You are making me want to trade in my 23 (that was purchased last month!) for a 26!!

 

[Fred]

Last time I was cruising with my brother in law he had a can of Kiwi Grip and I used it to touch up various nicks and scratches, particularly on the non-skid surfaces. Just dabbed it on with my finger and it did a great job so far. It's quite thick so you can match it to the anti-skid finish quite well.

 

[Thaniel]

This week the cables for the remote controls came in. Opened up the motor and started getting ready to connect them by disconnecting the tiller from the throttle. When this happened

Oooohhhhhh fuuuuudge.......

Well that's not what i wanted. Had removed the cable from this before and guess i was less careful this time. Nothing some epoxy can't fix.

I added an overlapping piece on the back. It's quite strong and should be fine again. Maybe a blessing in disguise though. When I removed it from the engine to fix it I found the pivot point had grease that had turned to what is more like glue than grease. This is pretty much what I've found about everywhere there has been grease. With that cured back to the original story.

Assembled the cables to the remote control and shortened the wiring to a similar length. Removed the start switch from the motor and cut the connector off and added it to the remotes wiring for the start wire. Should be plug and play now.

Also bought some screws and stainless to mount the controls to the boat. The OEM parts houses were wanting about $15 each for the mounting bolts ($30 total). Crazy. I bought a pack of 25 stainless oval head screws (same as the OEM) for $10 total. I have a few spares I guess. They are pretty and fit perfect.

With it all together it was ready for Saturday morning so I can go out and measure and make the mounts. Over the week the snow had melted and it hasn't snowed again. Just some rain!

Freezing rain. Both Friday and Saturday morning was freezing rain. Seriously? This is getting a bit ridiculous.

I'm about ready to hook the boat up and head farther south and finish it on vacation. Duct tape and zip ties if I have too Which may happen. We've picked a week to go based on our availability to take a week away. It's a few weeks out and if the weather is decent that week we are going, finished or not

 

[BrianJ]

Hunter 26 Running Rigging

Greetings from the frozen midwest. We got above zero today so to celebrate, I went to the boat and swept off the snow. I debated starting a new thread but thought this would be very applicable here since it's a refit. Most all of my running rigging is due to be replaced so I'm going to start from scratch. I've looked through the manual and quite a few other forums but I still have a few questions. I'm self taught and rigged my last boat for a spinnaker but it was a guessing game and I made it work. My new to me H26 is half pregnant and I want to see what everyone else does. Here's a hand sketch of what I think I have. Pardon the crudeness but it helps me plan and, for the most part, get's the point across.

First, my H26 had a mast replacement and I'm in need of a pad eye on the front of the mast for the spin pole. I also need a block for the topping lift. There's a block between the roller furler and the cabin hatch and I'm assuming its there to route the foreguy aft to cockpit? Does the topping lift come back to cockpit port or does it cleat at the base of the mast? The pictures below show what I'm talking about. There are blocks and cams for the spinnaker sheets.

Missing spin pole pad eye and topping lift block

Mast base

Starboard cleats and double jam

Port blocks and cams. Currently no running rigging except for jib sheet and furling line.

Second, does the reefing line and outhaul cleat on the boom or do the lines run down the base of the mast and back to port as well? Here's a picture of my boom and it looks like they are cams. Sorry, this one could be a thick question. Is the boom vang also left aft port? Right now the bang has a triple block with a cam at the base of the mast. I think I would prefer all lines aft for ease of single handing.

Boom at goose neck.

How accurate would this diagram be? I'm probably going to end up following this as close as possible.

My last question is does anyone have any strong recommendations for running rigging colors? I was going to do solid colors for halyards and white/colored tracers for sheets.

 

[CaptainRan]

Some people use red rigging on port, green on stbd but I group by function. Here is my color plan:

RIGGING COLORS
* running control *
jib sheets solid green (go)
main sheet Green w flecks (go)
traveler port yellow
traveler stbd yellow
outhaul orange
reefing red (stop)

* Halyards = blue *
main halyard blue
jib halyard white w blue flecks
furling line blue w flecks

flag halyard white

* running maintenance = black *
dock lines
fenders
centerboard uphaul blk w flecks
rudder uphaul blk w grn flecks
rudder downhaul blk w wht flecks

I stay largely away from white because it fades pretty quickly.

 

[isaksp00]

I can comment on how my 23 is set up, and the front of the boom looks very similar. I assume you have 3 sheaves in a fitting at the back of the boom. The three lines through these sheaves and cams are the topping lift, outhaul and aft reefing line. I don't have any blocks on my deck to lead the lines to the cockpit, I have to go to the mast to adjust. The luff of the main is reefed to a Rams Head hook at the gooseneck, which I think I see in one of your photos. Some people including me re-rigged the topping lift line to go through a swivel block that is attached to a fixed line or wire attached to the mast crane. That lets you adjust it more easily due to 2 to 1 mechanical advantage and you don't need to pull the topping lift line out of the boom to remove and stow the boom.

 

[Thaniel]

My last question is does anyone have any strong recommendations for running rigging colors? I was going to do solid colors for halyards and white/colored tracers for sheets.

When I started re rigging mine I figured there is probably some traditional salty sailor tradition of the colors. I searched and found there did seem to be some trends but didn't hit on the "Captain-know-it-all" rules. But this site's suggestions seemed along the lines of others I found

Colour Coding for Running Rigging - Jimmy Green Marine

Differentiate between different sheets, halyards and control lines by selecting different colours for all your running rigging

jimmygreen.com

Figured it doesn't hurt to be similar to other boats in the unlikely chance someone else wants to sail my boat But my main goal is to make sure that if there are 1 or more lines laying together that their use is very obvious by the color and not have to chase where it goes to I don't looking at it be " is that flexs of blue or green". Would rather have a lot of contrast.

Main Sail halyard - white, Sheet - white with flecks (green if you want to know)
Head sail halyard - Blue, Sheet - Red
Center board - Teal
Topping lift - white (it's a smaller diameter so shouldn't be confused with the main halyard)
The other lines are still the color they were when I got the boat, a kind of muddy white color The ones on the boom just exit below the boom and don't run back to the cockpit. So not too much confusion to be had there. Oh the h260 instruction manual I though had a better boom diagram then the H26 for looking at the line routing in the boom.

My boat doesn't have spinnaker lines or the optional clutches on the port side (sad). Maybe something to add in the future? So nothing I comment on about those.

Thaniel

 

[CrispyCringle]

For symmetrical spinnaker rig- I have a 23.5. Very similar boats, except for the size, of course. My boat came with a symmetrical spinnaker, and I had to figure out the rigging myself as well. What I use works pretty well. You seem pretty much on track for what you need. You will need an eye for the spin pole, set at the correct height for the sail. My dock neighbor has a 26, but I wont be back to the marina till probably late March.

For rigging, I use a jib halyard, topping lift, down haul, and sheets. You dont really need a fore guy for this boat. You will need a small block on the mast for the topping lift. I run both of the lines (topping and down haul) to a double block at the base of the mast. My mast foot has some holes that I used to secure a loop out of line and secure the double block. The topping lift and down haul both go through the double block and aft to the cockpit. They are secured by some cam locks from the cockpit. The sheets both run full aft to the aft cleats. I use a small block secured to the cleats with another loop of line. The sheets then run up to the cleats that I normally use for the jib sheets. I probably have some pics and Ill post later if they will help.

 

[Doug J]

Hello all! Been a long time since I've posted. I have to say I've really enjoyed reading this thread. Very happy to see all the H26 posts! I really love mine! The last couple years have been challenging to say the least, with COVID, mother-in-law had couple strokes, then she tested positive for COVID (she made it through it), had to move her from PA to CA. Then had to pack up and sell her PA house, and more hard luck issues I won't mention.

I went through much of the restoration issues that have been talked about here, still have a considerable list of things I want to do. In addition to sailing the boat, I've always enjoyed doing the mods. You all are energizing me to get back to my boat. Thanks for the inspiration!

If you haven't already done so, take a look in the H26 owners mods section:
Hunter 26 Owner Modifications and Upgrades

 

[Thaniel]

Thanks for the commends on the thread. Motivates me to continue to post Last week we had freezing rain again. Got tired of posting pictures of the boat covered in snow and ice. So didn't here is a post of a tree instead. That's not liquid water. It's ice.

This Friday it snowed yet again. Up north this isn't a big deal. But here they close schools for heavy frost. This weekly snow and ice isn't a typical winter. Anyway we did do some to the boat.

With the weather terrible we looked for something we could do inside. I took the stern seats off and Katherine cleaned and oiled them. After cleaning we found that a few of the stainless screws holding the wood planks down were starting to poke through. Sitting on a prickly seat. That's not fun. I decided to just remove those screws and grind off the tips and put them back in eliminating the prickly seat. Here are the pics

As removed from the boat

After cleaning

After oiling

I was also able to fabricate the mount bracket for the engine controls out of some stainless and aluminum. The weather improved and on my lunch breaks I got in a little time here and there and mounted the controls to the boat. The location is similar to what a few others on the forum suggested. Looks like it will work nicely.

From there we worked on the motor to tiller link. To get the motor and tiller to turn at the same rate the connection to each has to be at the same distance from their pivot point. And the length of the connection bar needs to equal the distance between the pivot points. With the Motor's pivot point being much farther aft then the tiller it made getting the connecting link over there without fouling on something a bit challenging. Originally we looked at connecting to the back of the motor. It had some merits but reaching past the boat to disconnect was not preferred. And we would have had to create a connection point on the back of the motor. On the front of the motor is where it's designed to have a steering connection. But if we used the factory mount hole and measured that distance out on the tiller the bar would totally collide with the stern rail mounting post. With some experimentation we found if we mounted as close to the motor cover as possible, and that distance out on the tiller the connection bar would barely clear the stern rail post. So that's what we went with.

There is a big height difference between the tiller and the motor though. So I fabricated a "Z" into the bar so it drops lower at the motor. Yes I could make a bracket to raise the engine's mounting point. Originally that was the plan. But the bracket would interfere with removing the motor cover. Long story but the tie bar is more complicated to get right that it looks. Astonished the factory didn't make design provisions for this and engine remotes.

 

[kappykaplan]

Lookin' good, @Thaniel !