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Restoration of 21333 Hyperactive by Steve Blackburn
 Part 1 cure the rotI purchased Enterprise 21333 (Hyperactive) in February 2008. I took an interest when I saw Hyperactive for sale on the Enterprise Association website. So I gave the owner a call and settled on a fee. 21333 had been attacked by rot. Just under the front of the centreboard case and around the hog, which was made from spruce, a softwood. “Oh crumbs”. I say politely. Most hogs are made from abishee, a hardwood. Hyperactive had an excellent history winning the Indlands, Nationals and Worlds in 1987 with Neil Marsden and Keith Crebbin. The only boat to win the treble. Until 20 years later the record was equaled in 2006 by none other than Nick Craig and Toby Lewis. I assessed the damage and thought it was repairable. I got the boat home and started work. I took all the fittings off the deck and started stripping the two-pack varnish. Varnish remover does not touch two pack so the only thing to use is a heat gun. Fortunately my Dad had just bought me a new heat gun. I removed the two-pack from the front thwart, which had seen plenty of action from the weather so wasn’t to difficult to get off. The next job was not for me. I need professional help from my Dad who is a qualified joiner. He unscrewed the thwart from the centreboard case and the centreboard joist at the rear. We were going to unscrew the centreboard from the keel. I took further advice from John Lufkin, The man who had built this wonderful boat. He told me to cut the centerboard case from the hog. He also said it would be difficult! The only way to cut the centreboard case away from the hog was to use an angle grinder. A bit harsh you may think. But we had to cut the screws joining the hog to the case. This was done very carefully so as not to damage the hog. In some areas we had to cut the case a little higher, where the ply meets the mahogany strip and then removed the area below with jigsaw. When the case was finally removed, we then chiseled out the rest of the case. To leave nothing but the hog. We needed to keep the case, as a template for the new centreboard case. The nest step was to rout out the rot from the hog. We routed a 10mm inlay for the case so this problem will never happen again. I also found out why the case had split apart. The case is only 20mm wide and uses an 18mm wide centreboard. The centreboard that I took out is 20mm wide thus creating the problem. At the moment we are a little stuck as we are waiting for melamine sheets for the inside surface of the new case. So I have been getting on with some sanding and preparing the deck for some more two-pack. |
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