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ULTIMATE MADNESS -A TWO FD FAMILY
Rebuilding a 1968 Bob Hoare
by Jonathan Gorbold

The trouble with encouraging the kids to sail is that they eventually want to sail what you do -which in our case is an FD. Neither Anna nor I wanted to give up our position in the FD, Anna tried it for one season and wanted her place back. So we looked for another boat, and picked up a 1968 Hoare from a local backyard. The boat had spent the last several years under a tarp and had been the home for local cats and other various backyard animals and collecting assorted patches of rot in the hull. We were very dubious about taking on the boat, but the price was right, it was pretty complete and it would prove a good learning experience for our three sons, Timothy, Paul and Nigel.

In the first year of the fix up we tackled the hull, taking out and refilling the patches of rot, stripping, then epoxy coating and painting the outside of the hull. We also rerigged it a little-bringing the controls to consoles. With the rigging we mainly focused on getting the original Elvstrom mast and running rigging working and in good condition for a season's sailing on Canandaigua Lake. We bought some used sails, were given lots of pieces by the local fleet, and managed to get the boat into sailing condition for the '92 Cannonball and Nationals at Canandaigua. The boat held together well all year but the original deck had been made out of nonmarine ply when the hull was imported into Canada in the late 60's, so it was delaminating badly. Although the molded ply hull was sound, the collapsing deck made the boat very flexible, and after much debate around the kitchen table, we decided to replace the deck for the '93 season.

Now the deck was 1/8" ply and most sensible folks would rebuild it with new stringers and Marine Ply. But I had visited the KDV boat yard a few years ago and seen a composite deck being molded. So creating an equivalent deck at home seemed a challenging and interesting project, and the strength, lightweight, and robustness appealed, as the boat would be a learning tool for the three sons!!

I investigated sources of the foam core and found I could buy 8'x4' sheets of Divinicell. A lot of thought was given to the construction techniques to make sure that the composite deck could be attached securely to the wooden hull. We decided to mold strips of wood into the edge of the deck so that the edge could be planed to match the hull shape after attachment, and the wooden rubrail would then be epoxied over the deck wood edge and wooden hull forming a solid hull-deck joint.

Ply wood was also molded into the deck in place of the foam at the key stress areas- genoa furler and turning blocks, spinnaker launching tube, mast partner and shroud cut outs. This allowed a clean finish on the holes cut in the deck. The new deck was molded on the deck and cockpit of the KDV, and we designed it to have the same cockpit structure. As you can imagine I was a bit wary about molding this new deck on my KDV and not being able to get it off!! However, we wrapped black garden plastic over the KDV -did some tests and the epoxy just pulled off the plastic.

Photo1 , Bow of new deck showing completed molding on top of KDV. Note Ply strengthening around genoa furler and rear of spinnaker launcher. Also ash edging cast into deck.

We did not have the luxury of a vacuum bag system, so we worked carefully to get a good wetting without too much epoxy and minimum air bubbles. The molding was done in two stages.
1. The foam, wood, and glass fiber was cut to shape. The glass was applied to the plastic covering the KDV deck and then the foam- wood inserts were applied to the wetted glass. We used one layer of 12 oz. with two layers of 6 oz. in the crew area and one layer of 12 oz. and one layer of 6 oz on the deck and transom. Additional strengthening was layered from the mast partner out to the hull and around the genoa furler. As we didn't have a vacuum bag system we applied pressure by covering the foam with precut ply wood pieces and putting lots of heavy weights on it. (Concrete blocks, tires, bags of cement and other garage type junk.) dwg 1

2. Once the underside had set we prepared the top of the foam with a light rubdown, cleaned up the edges, and then put down the top layer of glass and epoxy. Again we used lx12 oz. , 2x6 oz. in the crew area, and lx12 oz. , lx6 oz. in the deck and transom area. This molding was the deck level and first angle of the cockpit. The vertical sides of the cockpit were constructed by molding a composite sandwich of the right shape on the basement floor! We cut the foam core to shape and then layed it up using two 6 oz. glass and epoxy layers on each side. These moldings were done on the black garden plastic on the basement floor. The completed sides were attached to the deck later when fitting the deck to the Hoare hull.

Once the top layer of the deck had cured we could remove the completed deck from the KDV. It came off very easily, to much relief all round!! The nice thing about molding the deck on the KDV was that we knew that the dimensions would have the correct deck curve, and the deck would give the 1968 Hoare a modern look to it. The only difference of course is that the cockpit area is two material thicknesses ~ 3/4 inch, narrower in length and width, something we could live with. The molding was quite easy and the result turned out very well [much better than expected buy certain family members!] We had to work fast during the glassing and epoxying -two people layering, one each side, and one mixing epoxy . If I were to do it again I would apply the glass to the bottom side of the foam and thoroughly wet it out before putting in onto the black plastic. Using the technique of applying the glass to the plastic then the foam to the glass we had a few air bubbles in it -which of course we could not see.

Photo 2. Laying up the top layer of glass and epoxy, with the KDV being used as the mold for the new deck. Two of us worked from the bow down each side, with a third person mixing slow cure epoxy.

Photo 3. Detail of the front deck and front cockpit area, after the curing of the top layer, with the new deck still on the KDV. Note the sloping cockpit sides and the casting of ash strips to form the mast partner.

Photo 4. Rear cockpit detail after curing of the top layer. The ash side strip was molded into the new deck all around the edge except in the crew area.

With the deck as one piece we could position all the underdeck fittings prior to attaching the deck to the boat. The next stage was to prepare the Hoare hull to take the new molded deck. First we weighed the old hull -295 pounds, only 9 lbs overweight, not bad for a 23 year old wooden hull! We stripped the old deck off, it was surprising how easily it came off, and took out all the stringers.

Having got the old deck off we could see that it was a great opportunity to look carefully at all the rigging, particularly the mast raking controls. One of my pet soap-box sailing subjects is self rescuing dinghies, Therefore watertight front air tanks were high on the objective list. With this uncluttered look at the deckless hull -we became carried away with the "right thing to do" and got into a lot of hull preperation!

We decided to cut away the front half of the double bottom taking out all the additional wooden stringers and replacing them with a foam core sandwich construction bulkhead and fore/aft structure to create a very stiff airtight front end. We also constructed a spinnaker tube and front well. The foam core bulkheads were cut to shape on the boat. Using our patented black-plastic-basement-floor-technique we molded the bulkheads using two layers of 6 oz. on each side of the foam core. The inside of the hull was stripped and the bulkheads were glassed/epoxyed in place using the filleted jointing technique for extra strength.

Before sealing up the front we put in a shroud support system that would allow the shroud position to be moved back to allow for full rake. The old two inch adjustment magic boxes were thrown out and a three position [light, medium, heavy air!] series of shroud anchor points were built for Harken blocks from stainless steel plate. These plates were fastened to vertical ash board screwed and bonded to the hull and the original shroud board. We had to lower the double bottom around the attachment points to allow for the Harken bullet block 6: 1 system and 7" of adjustment.

Photo 5 and 6. The completed foam core deck shown upside down, before assembly onto the Hoare hull.The vertical sides of the cockpit were cut to shape and then molded flat on black plastic covering the basement floor! They were attached to the rest of the new deck with epoxy and glass strip with the deck temporarily posititioned on the Hoare hull.

Note the attachment of all the underdeck blocks and cleats.

After we had stripped the old deck of the hull we noticed that the top edge of the rear quarter of the hull dipped from a straight line so we built it up to level with the transom. Most strange as it was different on each side by about 3/ 4" on starboard and 1" on port! Vertically moving jib block cars were constructed with supports epoxied to the hull in the rear cockpit. We also found that the deck we had so carefully cast on the KDV had a mast partner 8 cms. further back than the mast mounting on the Hoare hull. So, after much measurement and discussion with other fleet members who know the FD history and development, we moved the mast back with all its surrounding rigging and blocks! This moved the mast step back to make the mast 3610mm from the transom.

Photo 7. Stripping the old deck off Came off pretty easily. The Girlfriend really got into it!!

Photo 8. The Hoare hull without deck and front half of double bottom. The new front compartment with spinnaker tube saved 5 lbs, stiffened the front end and formed an additional watertight airtank.

Photo 9. Detail of the starboard bulkhead, showing the exit for the spinnaker tube. The blocks shown in the photo are loose prior to fitting.

Drawing 10. showing details of the shroud attachment brackets. The three position stainless bracket for Harken triple bullet block was mounted to ash boards epoxied and screwed to the hull.

Photo 11. The front hull showing the new composite bulkheads and spinnaker tube. All joints to the hull were epoxied with fillets and glassed.

We were very concerned about weight so were continuously weighing everything we built or took out of the Hoare hull. Here are some numbers:

Hoare hull + with old deck 295 lbs Hoare hull -old deck 244 lbs Old deck 51 lbs New deck 37 lbs Hoare hull -front 1/2 bottom 225 lbs Hoare hull + new front compartment 239 lbs Hoare hull + deck [loose] 276 lbs Hoare hull +deck attached+hardware 296 lbs

When we found we had a lighter new deck and front bulk-head and had 10 pounds to spare before attaching the deck we were delighted. We were very surprised to find that we added 20 pounds in attaching the deck, painting it and adding the few extra rigging items.

Once the hull was prepared and all the rigging pieces were fitted to the underside of the deck we fitted the deck to the Hoare hull. Once again, this was quite an exercise as we had to work fast to dispense sufficient thickened epoxy to pro-vide a good joint on all the hull and bulkhead edges. All five family members helped to mix and disperse the epoxy. The deck was carefully positioned and then strapped down using the stretchy clear packing adhesive tape. Under the deck in the cockpit the joint was filleted and glassed. Once the epoxy set, the edge of the deck was planed to fit the hull and the rub rail was epoxied to both the hull and the wood edge of the deck to create a strong joint. The deck was coated with epoxy filler and rubbed down, then painted with a two part epoxy paint.

With the light grey deck and white hull this '68 Hoare now has all the appearance of a modern FD. Weare very pleased with the result of the work -it transformed the boat making if much stiffer and more rugged. Ideal for the kids to learn FD racing and sailing on. In the middle of the '94 season Curt Barnes donated [in exchange for slave labor from the boys!] an older Superspar mast and we picked up a used Diamond main and Hyde spinnaker, so Timothy and Paul are now learning how to tune the boat to go fast!

Photo 12. Epoxying the new composite deck to the Hoare hull. The deck was strapped down to the hull using stretchy clear plastic packing tape pulled tight over the deck and stretched before sticking it to the hull. The tape was used every 3 inches and as it was clear the joint could be seen. A thickened epoxy bead was applied to the joint area on both the deck and hull. We had to employ slow hardener and all five family members to apply the epoxy over all joints and position the deck before it went off!!

Photo 13. The clamps were used to pull the hull in to the deck shape. The inside of the cockpit was filleted and glassed to the hull forming a strong and stiff box section.

This was a great project - a bit crazy to put a composite deck on an old wooden hull, but it makes a unique and beautiful FD!

It would not have been possible without the help of FD friends, Dick Raymond, Bill Barnard, Curt Barnes and Greg Cole and others who supported us with parts, advice and encouragement. It was a fun thing to do - we got a lot out of the whole experience and ended up with a good second FD for the family.