Are Hawaiian & Tahiti the same hulls?

[77Spectra]

Kona may have been one of the Texas boats like BeachComber. My Spectra had a few flaws. The hull was about perfect. Like everyone else they did not glass the bottom of the floor and created a 10 gallon water trap. The deck has more glass in it than most hull do however the Gell was mixed too hot and too thick. Looked like a cracked egg shell, no fun to repair. Grinding cracks was useless so I gound the entire top. I was a little scared but it came out great.

[froggystyle]

OldR, here is a question for you. I used to own a boat called a 'cuda. The registration/pink says 'cuda, and it has a 'cuda emblem on the gunwale, but I have never seen another. Two distinguishing features on the boat are...
1. molded in gauge bezels
2. Molded in splash guard on the transom (about 3 1/2" tall)
Stringers are full length, and the bulkhead in front of your feet had a gap in the middle, but plywood went fore/aft from there, creating a very solid deck. The deck also had a 1/4" ridge in the center. It also had some chines on the sides, and was very stable at 71-72mph, and had zero chine walk. Has anyone ever heard of this brand? Could it be your Hornet? I have often wondered why I never found another, and the tags on the side look remarkably like the ones off of a Plymouth Barracuda from the 70's.
BTW, you should have a column in Hot Boat! I too thoroughly enjoy your posts.

[froggystyle]

OldR, here is a question for you. I used to own a 1979 boat called a 'cuda. The registration/pink says 'cuda, and it has a 'cuda emblem on the gunwale, but I have never seen another. Two distinguishing features on the boat are...
1. molded in gauge bezels
2. Molded in splash guard on the transom (about 3 1/2" tall)
Stringers are full length, and the bulkhead in front of your feet had a gap in the middle, but plywood went fore/aft from there, creating a very solid deck. The deck also had a 1/4" ridge in the center. It also had some chines on the sides, and was very stable at 71-72mph, and had zero chine walk. Has anyone ever heard of this brand? Could it be your Hornet? I have often wondered why I never found another, and the tags on the side look remarkably like the ones off of a Plymouth Barracuda from the 70's.
BTW, you should have a column in Hot Boat! I too thoroughly enjoy your posts.

[skijake]

Kona boats where built in Westminster Calif. in the 70's. If I remember right some manufactures like Anthony splashed them.

[Oldsquirt]

Froggy is this it?
http://www.boattraderonline.com/addetail.html?11286952
If not, take a look at who is selling it.
[This message has been edited by OLDSQUIRT (edited July 24, 2001).]

[old rigger]

Froggystyle,
Sounds like a splash of a Hornet to me. Marty was the first guy to do those little built in gauge bezels. Of course he splashed that boat from some one else too! He, like everyone else would change or add something to the hull they were splashing, sometimes for the better and sometimes with questionable results. (always liked what Marty did with that dash) I do not know what the actual law was or is about splashing but I can remember Schuster telling me (back in the day) that you had to change the boat enough as to where it would not fit back into the mold you were splashing. Later I heard you had to change 10% of the boat. How the hell you would figure out 10% is beyond me. Like I said, this is what I was told but when you look at the splashes of the 20 Spectra, I've seen lots of them that were not changed at all, some did change the deck though. Howard Boats splashed that one right after it came out and later changed the deck, straightening out the gunnels, looking more like a Schiada. That looked very nice, and to me, improved the looks of the boat alot. Roders version of the same boat, he bought a set of molds that were already built from ,I think it was who ever owned the name Conquest back in the early 80's, had the straight gunnels too but the doghouse was a little shorter and I don't think it looked as good as the Howard. But that is just my insignifcant,tiny, narrow minded opinion.
Ski Jet,
Yeah I knew that Kona was built out here in So.Cal. but for the life of me could remember where, thanks. I met the guy that used to build Konas when I was at Advantage, he would come around now and then. He passed away a few years back. I heard they opened him up and his lungs were toast, some said from all the unfiltered gelcoat he took in through the years, but that might of been just a rumor.
77Spectra,
That sounds like a heck of a lot of work on the deck of your Spectra! Did you remove the non-skid too.
That cracking you expereneced had nothing to do with the gelcoat being applied to thick or mixed to hot. If that was the case it would have lifted or blistered in the mold before the hull was layed up. Usually those kinds of cracks just come from age and the gelcoat begins to shrink. The magc number seems to be 10 to 15 years with a boat and if your boat is going to do this , and not all do, it will start happing then. If your boat is kept in the desert the chances are even higher. One of my boats that we left at the river, did this too, but on a much smaller scale. It was a 79'hull.
You know over the course of 10 or so years a boat hull has finally cured, the elastic quality of the resin that has made a boat so durable isn't there anymore. ( this is one of the reasons it is easier to take the hook out of an old boat and not a new boat. but that's another subject, and someone needs to start a different post for that) If your boat was built corectly this is no big deal really because on a good design together with a quality lamanation, the boat will not beat itself to death. On the other hand, a lot of boats that make it to this age are are going to start having more and more stress cracks and some times, no matter what you do, they will reappear. Although a good repair guy can build up certain areas of the boat to prevent this from comming back.And alot of NEW boats will start to crack the first time in the water but these tend to be boats that were built using a chopper gun and the mixture was resin rich or the wood was put in incorectly, or a number of other things that could have been done wrong.
And as always there are exceptions to every rule.

[froggystyle]

Old Squirt, That is my old boat. I sold it to my great freind and teammate last year when I decided to go down the blown pickelfork road. Mike has had a great time with that boat, and recently rebuilt the whole deal. He just bought an Ultra after seeing mine being built, and as such is selling the 'cuda. In all honesty, if anyone is looking for an inexpensive, great performing ski boat, this thing is a really honest, great performing boat. I am curious as to what its history is though, as it is a totally cool hull, and so far unique.

[77Spectra]

Old Rigger, this boat did not have any non-skid. Not sure the 19's did, my friends 18 did have it. The top deck was the only part of the boat with all the cracks. The gell was also twice as thick as the rest of the boat. There were a few stress cracks from hits on the hull but it was in decent shape. Call it bordom, ADD, or lack of anything else to do but I took it down to the glass, totally. You could not tell what color it was. The stripes being shot first of course were deeper. I went back and laid a layer of glass to these areas. The Idea was to use as little filler as possible. The keel was well worn and I had to add 1/2 inche to the forward 10' to bring it back to stock. I was not happy with how the paint came out on the top so I am re-shooting this week. One thing I learned on boats, If you do it half ass, your ass might get wet...

[iparky]

OLD RIGGER,
What year did Hawaiian first start making that open bow(moonraker). Mine is a 1979 20' open bow low profile as you mentioned. Just wondering becouse I have seen newer Hawaiians with open bows but they have a much higher free board than mine, My boat actually sits pretty low. I just looked up Moonraker w/James Bond the movie was released in 1979. http://www.goldenplasma.f2s.com/foru...es/happy34.gif
Any other info. on my boat would be greatly appreciated.
tks iparky

[kevin]

oldrigger, what where the reputable builders in the 70's? i mean what boats would YOU be looking at to possibly buy knowing the stuff you know about the industry back then. until last year i had a newer(1990) cole 20.6ss. even today splashing still goes on. i have seen several different boats that looked exactly like my cole. i loved the cole, very solid but had to pay alot of bills, but i am now looking for a little 18'jet hot rod boat(cheap) but don't want to buy a crappy copy of a good hull, rather get a soliod foundation from the start. thanks
kevin