Hidden in the tie-off hole in the top of the daggerboard the raising line
had frayed to a single strand (shudder) and the pulley that directs the
raising line downward from the winch had completely shed its mounting nut
due to transport vibration. Such problems creep up on a long term owner-
the point is after all to sail the thing, not spend lots of time playing
mechanic. No big deal, taking only a couple hours and some new line to
fix, but the thought of that daggerboard crashing down into the bottom of
the boat...
Only advice to a used boat buyer- no matter how good the basic condition,
strip everything out of the boat and look EVERYWHERE.
One last example of this (and one other HMS 18 owners might want to look
into) is that when I crammed my head into the forepeak checking out
condition of pulpit mounts I noticed two rust-lumps where there were
supposed to be nuts holding on the trailer winch bow eye. The eye is
stainless and looks pristine from the outside- but someone had attached the
thing with ordinary plated nuts. When I removed the things to replace with
stainless, they came off basically as dust. Visions of our beautiful boat
emulating Windsong (as I recall) and surfing down the freeway on its own,
sans trailer.
-Ron
rlreno@worldnet.att.net