Gday all!
Hay um...ive just about finished a total rebuild on an old hood 23.
Deck is now solid and dry and mast step cut out and renewed...all rotten ply stripped out and re done though entire deck.
was a massive... massive job.
Cut out the head and the galley to make the bunks go all the way to the bulkhead etc.
was dark and cramped....now its light and cramped he he lol!!
anyway.....
the boat has not moved yet, and i have never sailed a hood 23...just our farr 6000.
are they nippy?...are they slow?...weather helm?....stable?....do they point?
im excited about the maiden voyage....just wondering what to expect???
anyone??
thanks so much guys.
dave
Hi Dave-I have not sailed on one either, but have in company along with the Cavalier 28's and the Endeavour's for a few years.
At the time(around '05) we would sail up from Wollongong on the Cav and participated in the annual combined races on Sydney Harbour.
It was dubbed the 'World Championship of Mooring Minders!)
I observed the Hoods to go well in light airs and pointed particularly well to windward. There were a lot of 'Wiley' campaigners based at the Royal Prince Edward Yacht club and those boats achieved remarkable speed.
Reckon you will have a lot of fun on your Hood and are definitely not sluggish.
Cheers C.R.
Picked up a Hood 23 bout a month ago, same problem with soft deck, may have some questions for you Dave . Well done with the resto mate.
I dodged up a rough horrible sketchy thingy so you can contemplate the wet brown oozing crap that you will be fiddling with.
um...the worst bit is...each section of ply is connected, so a leak at the bow means wet ply at the stern.
having done it myself...i would not do it again. id inject epoxy.... and replace ply in strategic areas.
i did mine from a safety point of view as i didnt want the mast to fall through the deck, and i am hoping to sail the boat a little "hard" some days.....but it blew out into madness.
it was difficult for me as i have never set foot on another hood...and everyone i asked couldnt tell me much about them....i asked the hood club guys down south but didnt get far. not their fault. that is why i made the picture for you.
if there is anything else i can do any time. pm me if you like or call on the phone or whatever you like.
im no expert i just had a go.
beauty is in the eye..as they say...and i have grown to love the look of my ugly little flat topped art deco weird little yacht.
The usual way is to drill a series of holes down from the top. Inset a nail bent at 90 degrees into an electric drill into the hole so the nail can be rotated at speed and turn the foam into mush. Suck it out and replace with epoxy filler mixture. Not sure of an easy way if the ply is still intact.
Yep. Thats it.
Allen keys work in a drill too. I had a shot at
Pumping metho into each ply section under pressure
So it would slowly ooze through the wet wood and
Displace the water, then evaporate over time. Apparently it kills the rot fungus aswell. I have a vacume pump that I considered using to pull the core down ...but that sounded scary.
So many old wives tales and crazy ideas on the many forums on the net about how to dry a core or
Repair easily.
I used to build thes Hood 20's and 23's at Spit Bridge Marina, the fibreglass was hand laid and the ply was brinzeel ply, boats built in the 70's are lucky to see the 2013 but many do, and your boat is a good one. I had an old folkboat that did not have any osmossis and had a little deck rot. Another way to rectify is to install another aluminium plate support under the mast with added strengthening plates on the underside of the deck and an aluminiun strut to the keel as a compression post. The strengthening plates on the underside of the deck will need to be fitted connecting the chain plates and use duralac isolation paste when connecting the stainless to the alloy.
Mate, our boat has ply as you described in areas and foam core in the other 90 percent . Any recollection as to what kind of foam it was/is?
Airex or divinicell foam core. If it has broken down due to water ingress then some times it is better to drill holes and inject epoxy resin into the void, patch the holes with fibreglass matt and gelcoat.
Hi brizzydave
just read your epic about your restoration...had missed your thread somehow.
Bravo!! What a job!
I've taken great inspiration from your experience - and the advice of the other contributors - as I can no longer ignore the deck problems in my old cat. So far, I've just spot-fixed the most offending spots, however, the legacy of a very dodgy paint job by a previous owner - + her age + years of neglect + fear of lack of XX skills/abilities on my part - has caught up. Have a watch of 'Hannah Has a Go' on Adam Hills Tonight and, taken in context of some of my maintenance attempts, Hannah looks like a bloody genius lol! 
Just got a 10% off voucher for haulout and hardstand so, August looks like the month to start The Project.
As for Hoods, I think I mentioned in another thread that we had a Hood 20 when I was a kid. She was one of the less common round bilge and yes, I do agree with you, they do have a quirky aesthetic appeal. With that flush deck, you too will learn to be a contortionist
The boat would not have been that old when Dad bought her - mid '70s - but I recall even then, that she was in the shed for a while having something major done to the deck.
Dad never understood the word 'fear', and I can still remember that day going across to Tangalooma in 45 knots. Mum was pretty nervous and had me down below (which facilitated my hurling) and kept on suggesting that maybe we should turn back. To which Dad kept replying, "...nah love, the closer we get to the island, the more protected we'll be. We'll keep going".
It was uncomfortable, wet, and wild. The short, sharp chop of the Bay is nasty. Dad was close to hypothermia once we'd anchored up, requiring a good tot of medicinal rum, however, that little 20ft boat was tough enough to endure all of that.
Also, in our learning to fly a kite phase - on a too regular basis - we would round up and end up on our ear, water coming over the gunwale. However, she was a very forgiving old boat and there was never a threat that she would not come back.
See you and your girls on the bay sometime brizzydave
What's in that bag?
A spinnaker.
A spinnaker?.....what?....no....no David.
Yeah!....it'll be right....not gunna put it up in thirty knots dad....safety first and all that cr#p
Youre not putting that up on that old boat while im on it. ( whole conversation with lots of added f's and c's added)
your dad had more balls than mine. Respect.
Nah....you'll be sweet with your repairs. The stuff you don't know you will google or pick it up etc. You probably know way more than me. It's nasty taking the first cuts with the grinder but it's for a good cause.
Just don't do what I do and bite off too much. I cut everything out to the point where i could wobble my boat. It had nothing holding it together. Scary.
