The Beginning

I started sailing when I moved to Shanghai China for an overseas assignment with my company. I spent most my weekends learning how to sail at the Shanghai Boat and Yacht Club (http://www.shanghaibyc.org). In June of 2007 I bought a Red Dragon 5.8 with a friend of mine from Germany. We sailed it almost every weekend until our assignments were over in 2008. We still own the boat in China and are actively trying to sell it.

When I got back to home in Boise Idaho I began to think about what I was going to do to quench my thirst for sailing. One weekend I ran into my aunt and uncle downtown and they jokingly said, "Hey, do you want a Hobie Cat?". I did not think much of it at the time, but about a week later I sent my uncle an e-mail asking what he wanted for the boat. A few weeks later he let me know that they would like to give me the boat, but that it was going to need some work.

The boat is a 1975 Hobie 14. It has been sitting at my father and uncle's company storage yard for the last 7 years. I think the last time it was on the water was in the late 1980's. The hulls are in pretty good shape with only some minor scratches and oxidation. The sail and rigging have been stored inside and are still in pretty good shape. The trailer is in good shape except for the tires which have more or less disintegrated. The trailer also has a plywood storage box which my uncle added to carry some of the boat gear.

My goal is to upgrade the boat to a Hobie 14 Turbo, and fix some of the worn out items. I would like to have it sailing by the summer of 2009.

This will be my first attempt at restoring a boat. I am not a fibreglass expert by any means, but I figure it would be a good project to learn on. I would like to document the process of restoring the boat. I have spent many hours looking at other people's boat building/restoration logs and figure it was my time to give something back to the boating community.

I welcome all input on the project.