I only ended up with one reliable buddy to move the boat. Left the house at 04:00 on Mission NACRA Repatriation. We decided to drop the mast & motor it across the lake using a 33lb electric trolling motor. It worked, but barely. The wind kept turning the hulls, but full power, along with moving the spare battery to the front of the tramp to get the bows down worked.
We used a 300' climbing rope tied to the front stay, then led up the hill. This gave the rope man control over the mast right until it touched the rear beam, which was good as the back 15' of the mast was out in the lake. Got it off & humped up the hill.
The trailer actually turned out to have good bones, (functional tilt, good tires & bearings)but there was no way the Xbeams the boat was sitting on were ever mounted on that trailer. Good thing we brought everything except a welder with us, damn, I wish we had brought the small one! We Mcgyvered it together with clamps & much profanity. Not a single light could be made to work, so we got under way in the daylight, made for the nearest Canadian Tire store, & with 20' of 4 strand wire, a roll of tape & some butt connectors my buddy rewired things for the long drive in the dark. Bailed out at my friends house, after a 19 hour day & drank some beer. Moved it the last 25 km the next morning, then disassembled it & moved all the parts into warm storage.
A few nice surprises were handed to us. Hulls seem dry, a couple cups in starboard hull, port totally dry. At a gas stop I wiped down a small section & it seems it will polish up very nicely. It hasn't been sailed in 2 years, but the blocks, lines, sails were all neatly packaged & stored indoors. Sails are great, still have nearly all the original telltales, & only 1 small (1")tear that appears to be covered with some sort of green tape. All battens present. Tramps is good, no holes, looks fairly new. All rigging in excellent shape, not a single broken strand could be found, with the exception of one strand on a trapeze line. Pins showed no grooves or wear marks. It is missing the end caps, & we could not locate the tiller bar, so I'll have to hunt for those pieces.(anybody have any spares call me)
We got it taken apart & hulls are now in garage, mast in basement at the cottage. I want to hoist the sail up one wall along a cathedral ceiling, but have to negotiate that with my good wife. The graphics are in pretty good shape, but the paint below the waterline needs a redo. At least everything is warm & dry, I can test hulls & clean them. Ski season starts next week, only 4 months til the docks go back in!
All in all I'm pleased with the deal.We are headed back to the Caribbean after Christmas, the resort has hobies, so I intend to get some lessons & stick time in. Thanks for all the help & advice, can't wait to start sailing & dumping...also have to get righting bag.
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edited by: Edchris177, Dec 08, 2009 - 09:08 PM

--
Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
--

looks good Ed

maybe take that black paint off...

congrats!

I was thinking about that paint, were they ever sent that way from the factory? I think I read somewhere about 5.7s with black rudders, & this one has black rudders.
I don't know anything about stripping, or repainting fiberglass. From a safety aspect, having the hulls totally white would make the boat much easier to spot, especially when turtled!
On the other hand, if that is the original color scheme, I'll probably restore it. I'll do some research this winter on what sticks to FG in the water. I'm sure the marine shops must stock some sort of bottom paint. I don't really need antifouling, as the boat will be pulled up on lawn each night.

--
Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
--

Agree...Looks like factory paint. I'd just leave it as is. I'm reckoning from the pics that this boat has not seen all that much rough service in its lifetime.

You've got a gem there. I think you are going to be really happy when you clean her up. That munge on the hulls will come right off.

The trailer could be stripped down and painted if there is no metal damage.

The black paint looks like Micron antifowling. If the boat is left in the lake all summer it stops growth on the hull. I would strip it since it isn't the bext idea to leave the boat wet all the time.

The easiest way to strip it would be to sand it off with a relatively fine sandpaper. Once the colo(u)r is gone, switch to 800 then 1200 grit wet/dry paper to get it smooth. Then buff the shine back in.

Where in Canada are you located? Winnipeg?

I think I will revive the trailer, its bones are sound, & it has a full tilt function. I will look into either removing all dissovlable parts & getting it galvanized, or totally cleaning then spray painting. If we go the paint route, it will have to wait til spring, I don't want to sandblast or wire wheel strip inside.
The jury rig system we used to attach the bars was pretty mickey mouse, just a bunch of muffler clamps. I have a welder in the garage, & will fabricate a proper quick attachment system. Probably also build a set of drop in sidewalls/endgate so it can be used for other purposes as well.
It sounds like the boat was barely used for the last 6 years. Previous to that most of its life was in the Ottawa area, a short season compared to the Southern States. I think 4-5 of our years would equal 1 in Florida.
I have room at the cottage, so it will be taken down & stored inside every winter. The actual take down is pretty simple, getting the mast up & rigged is a bigger job. I'll build some wooden "V" boxes, an imitation of the ones that make up the shipping crate the new ones come in. That will make reassembly a one man job, except for the mast.
I also scored 2 trapeze harnesses. One is a brand new GUL Thermo with spreader. We tried it on, lots of padding & strakes down the back. The other is a used Hobie, with no spreader, didn't seem nearly as comfortable. I don't know much about harnesses or who makes the better gear, but this will get us started & suffice til we become better educated & experienced. Also got a few lines/blocks that I don't know what they do, i'll post a pic on tech help. I'm thinking one has to be a righting line,(thick with knots) & the other for pulling up a righting bag.
I need a few parts & new tramp lacing, but I'll probably post those questions on tech help forum.


--
Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
--

My Moms family was from just West of the 'Peg, they still run big farms out near Culross.
The boat will be kept on Lake Simcoe, Ontario.



edited by: Edchris177, Dec 09, 2009 - 11:45 AM

--
Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
--

Great Stuff!

Check out Dan Berger's add in the used cat parts classifieds on this site. He has many pieces off a 5.7 and 5.2 for sale. If it isn't listed, e-mail him, he has tonnes of parts. I have bought several things from him and have been exceedingly happy!

If you are going to repaint the hulls it is probably easier and cheaper to get them filled and gel coated professionally. I would just polish them up and sail as is!

Regards,
Dave

--
Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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Now I want to know what you called your family to get it blanked out. :)

--
Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
--

Small world. I lived in Ottawa for 6 years before moving to Kalamazoo Michigan. Spent 3 years in Michigan and realized that the economy in Michigan sucks, so we moved to Dallas.

The season in Ottawa is short, but it is sunny most of the time. Kalamazoo was dark and depressing in the winter.

At least the cold places that I lived (see list below) were all sunny in the winter....and yes that means that southern Michigan is not cold!

Canadian tour
- Kapuskasing, Ontario (Short season.The bugs will eat you)
- Belleville/Trenton, Ontario (Good sailing, but lacks wind)
- Kingston, Ontario (Great sailing. I would recommend a trip).
- Yellowknife, NT (Short sailing season.)
- Iqualuit, NT (Now Nunavut, but was NT when I was there). Not cat friendly.

Thanks for pointing that out Wolfman, I don't know why "mothers" got turned into asterisks, my Mums family only contains one black sheep! I edited the post, had to change the word to Mom.
I think for the first season I'm going to clean the dirt only off the hulls & sail as is.

rpiper:
I've been to Kingston a few times now, my daughter is a student at Queens.
After I moved from the floats/skis division I did a stint flying the Gov't premiers & VIPS (or leeches depending on your point of view). We used a Citation biz jet & an older Gulfstream. I traveled extensively in what is now Nun-of-it. In fact the only communities I never got into were Sachs Harbour, & Lake Harbour...neither would be much fun in a NACRA. I also did trips into Great Bear Lk, & places like the World UNESCO Sites, Nahani National Park & a fair bit of the Yukon...Dawson City, Bonanza Creek & the rest of the Klondike. We used to go to Whitehorse 3 times a week, & I got to drive the Dempster Hwy. We lived an adventure, & used airplanes the way most people use taxis. My daughter didn't know you went on trips using your car til she was 6!
As I get older I enjoy winter lees & less. Me thinks I should soon sell one of my places & buy one where you can sail all year. Right now I still ski 60 ish days a winter, & teach grade 4-8 school kids alpine skiing a couple of days a week. We get lots of time off, & you have to keep busy. I still keep a place out in Southern Alberta, on the edge of the Rockies, that's where my heart is, but the paychecks are here!

--
Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
--

Ed,

You got to see some beautiful country. I flew from Yellowknife to Nunavut in a cargo plane (air van) back in the earrly 90s. Several stops along the way for refueling and it took a long long time.

Sailed in Kingston on various boats (470, PHRF Offshore, several skiffs, Tornado). The wind there is great.

Edchris177

Thanks for pointing that out Wolfman, I don't know why "mothers" got turned into asterisks, my Mums family only contains one black sheep! I edited the post, had to change the word to Mom.

LOL
I fixed the censor list, the words mother mothers Mothers and Mother shouldn't have been on the list by themselves.

--
Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

How To Create Your Signature

How To Create Your Own Cool Avatar

How To Display Pictures In The Forums.
--

HaHa thanks Damon, one of the great things about this forum is the ability to go back & edit posts. The whole site is pretty intuitive, but I did use the edit feature when I first posted multiple pictures, & it didn't turn out the way I wanted.
One question, is bandwidth an issue/cost? I posted pics as they came from the camera. I usually take them as large file sizes so that I can enlarge them greatly in order to see details that are of value. It occurred to me later that perhaps I should resize everything to 800x600 before posting.
Thanks again for the great site, it is the major reason I learned enough to go out & buy a NACRA 5.7

Edchris177

One question, is bandwidth an issue/cost? I posted pics as they came from the camera. I usually take them as large file sizes so that I can enlarge them greatly in order to see details that are of value. It occurred to me later that perhaps I should resize everything to 800x600 before posting.
Thanks again for the great site, it is the major reason I learned enough to go out & buy a NACRA 5.7

Your pics are on Photobucket, so the bandwidth to display them is actually on Photobucket.

If you add pictures to the albums here at TheBeachcats.com you can upload whatever size you want, but the upload will go faster if you can resize beforehand. I reccomend resizing to a max of 1280 on the long side for fast uploading but keep detail. The image server automatically creates the thumbnail and smaller browse version of the pics. (if you upload giant pics it automatically resizes the largest to 1280)

If you haven't already done it, you can create your own photo album in the Beachcats People section of the albums, and use it to record your sailing adventures. As you work on your boat, please take pictures and add repair and upgrade jobs to the Beachcats Technical albums. This is the way we grow TheBeachcats.com as a resource for catamaran sailors.

Thanks for your comments.


--
Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

How To Create Your Signature

How To Create Your Own Cool Avatar

How To Display Pictures In The Forums.
--

love the color on the sails, cats look much cooler with color. i,m jealous, that was a sweet buy. have fun on the hobies this winter but know you will be sailing a legend this summer! bill.

--
Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook!
bill harris
hattiesburg, mississippi
prindle 16- "BLUE RIBBON"
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Yeah, everytime I look at that boat I get jealous. That boat is going to be an awesome beast on the lake! The more I looks the 5.7s the more I like them!

--
Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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