HT 26 structure

Hello Yan, I had a 1976 HT26 until last year – 'Tarla.' Since I don't have her now I can't go and take a look, but I am pretty sure she had the same beams. I would say, anyway, that they would be of structural importance. To remove them might leave you with a banana!!! The early HT26 is not, in my opinion, suitable for stoopthroughs and to do away with them would also weaken the structure – also you would lose valuable locker space in the cockpit.

Maybe someone else can comment?

Not a lot wrong with your english – better than my french I daresay!!

Good luck, Michael

hi, sorry to have missed your post.. I'm doing the same, rebuilding a 26. I have those beams and they seem to tie the hulls together and support the cockpit floor. So long as your replacements do both you should be ok…. good luck. I've had to tear out all the interior, resin coat all the hull (inside), replace/repair nearly every bulkhead, redo previous appalling hull repairs, epoxy the hull, replace the mast… shall I go on? best wishes bill

Hi Yann.

Thank you for your response to my posting (Amon-Re). Yes, I will have to consider very carefully whether I decide to go for the twin diesel conversion instead of my outboard, it would obviously entail a great deal of work and I already have plenty of that!

Regarding your beams, Amon-Re ( MK III, 1979) has 5 of them which are an integral part of the structure. They are obviously fibreglassed onto the underside of the cockpit floor before the deck moulding is bonded to the hulls. They cantilever over the hulls and support the floor of the cockpit lockers and add rigidity to the hull sides.

Now you mention epoxying both the inside and outside of the hulls. Do not do this! The structure is polyester and all internal repairs and renewals should be done using this material ( which is considerably cheaper than epoxy ) and if you are resheathing the exterior of the hulls below the waterline (osmosis?) then you should use vinylester resin and vinylester gel-coat. Vinylester is a hybrid resin like a cross between polyester and epoxy and is now the recommended resin for below waterline applications.

Hope this is of some help.

Regards, Neville.

Hi Guys,
My HT Soltrykk also has these beams. In the survey the surveyor commented that they had not been coated with any preservative, one of them looks discoloured as if rotten but it is still sound. So I coated them with Sikkens Cetol 7. In addition each beam had been “disconnected” fromthe hull sides as the previous owner was going to re-connect them with a GRP Sleeve around the ends of the wood so that the hulls could flex about 10mm on an impact from the outside. I had some serious stress cracks on the outside of the hull, which I have repaired (not very well cosmetically) but i hope structurally OK. Like you guys my boat had appalling glass work on the inside of the boat. I think originally it was a Hull and Deck moulding job, being fitted out by the original owner. The previous owner had stripped her out and then systematically re-glassed any really rough areas. He also planed off the gelcoat below the waterline on the outside of both hulls the re-coated her with 4 coats of “epoxy” resin.

It truly is a labour of love as I have spent most weekends on her working for the last two years. She only had two cables in the boat when I bought her. One 240v AC mains cable to two 13 amp sockets and one 12V DC cable from a battery to the Wallas 3000 paraffin heater, connected by two crocodile clips.

With mostly everything removedwhen I bought her, I seem to spend 80% thinking about where something goes before the 20% doing it. The forecabin is now about 80% complete and I have ordered upholstery etc, but I have run an AC ring main with RCB box but need to connect up the 30 odd DC cables to the new Switch panel. The switch Panel has 25 Circuit Breakers as I put in what I would eventually like to have on the boat, but may have to compromise with less on the basis of cost etc.

I am lucky to have Mark Jarvis, fount of all knowledge on HT's at Multihullworld and another member Eric Lough with HT Greylag in the same boat park at our sailing club on Thorney Island in Chichester harbour, so I can call them or pop along and see where something goes on Greylag.

Martin