We have recently acquired a vintage 15' cat. Very pretty, and free. We know the model and it has extremely low value. Still, it's bulletproof and we would like to turn it into a trainer for our younger sailors and spouses.
Now the question. Does anyone have experience removing ~ 30 lbs of old honeycomb through 1" holes? We don't want to spend the $$ on an inspection port. Any ideas? What dissolves honeycombs? should we just leave it as extra flotation and emergency rations?
Although I plan to boycott the old forum, I'll post this there for all to see. Please reply here.
Are you talking about insect honey comb or the kind used in building this cat. If you meant that bee's have been in the hulls then a steam cleaner would take the wax out without a problem. If you mean construction honeycomb then I would take the boat to the dump, because it would be beyond repair.
If it still floats don't worry about the honeycomb inside. As long as the integrity of the hulls are sound, the materials on the inside shouldn't matter. If its broken down flotation material then the drawback would be that it would probably sink (or come close to it) if it was holed or broken. If you know this then you can prepare for it i.e. lifejackets, flotation cushions, stay close to shore, etc, etc. Any situation is manageable if you know what you're dealing with. On the other hand if the hulls are very soft and leak then the
hole in the water that you pour money into
theory would definitly come into play here.
Your call, sail safe, have fun.
Clayton
H20, H16
Hear, Hear,
Clayton's resonse is excellent. If it sinks don't worry, used sail boats are cheap! Keep sailing.
greg H14,16
It is a honey bee problem. Apparently this old (OLD!) Venture cat was a beehive in the Arizona desert for 3 or 4 years before we got it. The hulls are really solid, but one weighed a lot more than the other. When the honey got in the way of the fiberglass repair, we decided we had to remove it. Besides, it was starting to stink. It's a really
sweet
boat. We found a partial solution... If you lay 100' of garden hose in the sun in Phoenix, you can then shoot almost boiling water in at high pressure and melt the honey and blast the honeycomb to pieces. We still may have problems getting West system epoxy to stick to the honey, but, hey... it's a 1974 Venture cat. (anyone have a free trampoline?)
Thanks for the input.
Hey,Dennis this is Jonathan Grant, drop me a line. I will see what I can do for you. Especially since it is for newsailors. I meant to email you when you first had some questions about it, but it slipped my mind. Talk to ya later.