New Owner, New Member. 22' Hunky Dory Questions

G

Greeb

New member
Hi All,
Just acquired a 22' C-Dory. Says Hunky Dory on it so I guess it's an early one. Looks like it's been stored outside, uncovered in S E AK for most of its life. I'm looking for advice on any and problem areas to investigate and prioritize. Looks to me like the bottom might be a bit concave? How were these constructed? Foam? Balsa? Might it have some Big Issues and can anyone suggest ways to check?

It has a 90 hp, 4 stroke Merc. Seems kind of slow and heavy; just makes it on step with 3 people on board.... I've never been in one before but thought it would jump on step quicker than it does.
 
If the engine is operating ok (good compression) is it propped ok? Don't know what the Merc 90 recommended RPM is, but a 90hp Honda should be between 5500 and 6000 at WOT. I would expect that a 90hp Merc would be in that range.

If it is carbed, are all the carbs clean and working?

I had a Merc 20 once. It ran fine a high speed but was hard to start and would run roughly at slow speed. Turned out the jets were plugged up in one carb. The engine was new and this happened out of the box.
 
What year is the boat? Does the floor seem soft? I believe some of the first boats had plywood core--and were flat bottom. In any case the core can be removed and replaced. It is some work, but well worth it.

s there bottom paint? Is the bottom free of growth? What prop is on the engine, and what shape is the prop? Agree with comments about RPM.

You may want to weigh the boat on trailer, and then off trailer. A concern would be water in the core, if the boat has been out in the weather for its life, along with freeze thaw cycles.

With 3 people, the boat should get a a plane fairly quickly. Is there a GPS, and what speed are you getting?
 
Engine runs fine. I'm assuming do now that the prop is correct. What I'm more curious about is the concave bottom and whether it's flexing and/or waterlogged. Any histories of this? Did the design change at all when they changed from Hunky Dory to C-Dory?
 
Greeb: Welcome to the forum man. Congrats on your boat. You should make a photo album and post some pictures in there. Look up the name TYBOO on here and PM him. He'll set up an album for you. Cheers.
 
Greeb,

I have a 1984 22' with the dead-flat bottom hull. The transom core - which rotted - was balsa. The sole core was 3/4" construction-grade plywood full of surprisingly large voids. The one that is vertical in this photo is about an inch in width.
Rough_Core.jpg


I replaced much of that with a 7-ply cabinet plywood; not marine, but certainly a step up, and very well saturated with epoxy prior to subsequent fiberglass laminations. I'm gonna go out on a thin limb with nothing but a hunch and surmise that C-Dory's produced in the first few years probably had better sole core material and that they started using cheaper materials to cut costs. That probably doesn't help if your sole is concave. That may be due to something other than rot given its age; perhaps just the way it was stored. If it's got a lot of convex-ness, I'd check for stress cracks along the gunwales and cabin joint, and at the chine.

The way I checked my hull was by using a pinless moisture meter and I found major amounts of moisture content in the core. I drew isolines at 10-20-30% readings and could see where it was the wettest. When I opened up the sole, sure enough, the highest measurements were stemming from the plywood voids. These meters aren't cheap, but for this application I wouldn't buy the expensive ones unless you were going into business. Maybe someone who owes you has one you can borrow...
 
If running correctly and with the right prop, the boat should go very close to 30 mph and come out of the hole fine with 3 people. Something is not right.
 
tomherrick":2bg96ufd said:
The way I checked my hull was by using a pinless moisture meter and I found major amounts of moisture content in the core. ... These meters aren't cheap, but for this application I wouldn't buy the expensive ones unless you were going into business. Maybe someone who owes you has one you can borrow...
Click to expand...

Previously I had always used the "pro" moisture meters - and they are good of course. Then when I went to survey what ended up becoming my C-Dory 22, I wasn't able to bring one of the good ones along. I bought a pinless Ryobi moisture meter at Home Depot for, IIRC, around $35. I basically knew where I was looking for potential problem areas, and it did show me a couple of spots. When I later checked things out for real (bought the boat, repaired a few small areas, checked over basically all of the core) there was nothing that the moisture meter had not revealed (and where the meter had shown dampness, it did exist).

Sure, not as good as a higher grade moisture meter, but for my purposes it worked pretty well. Too, since you now own the boat, a few judiciously taken small "core samples" will tell you for sure (small drill, inspect the shavings the bit brings out).

As mentioned above, you'd think that if the hull were wet enough to be "going concave" due to it that there would be some stress cracks in various places (say, up and down the chine). Do you have anything like that? Can you see the bottom gelcoat or is it painted?

Would enjoy seeing photos of a Hunky Dory.
 
Thanks to everyone so far for your replies. I won't be back home for a couple months so I can't go looking for stress cracks anytime soon. My guess is that it will have to be cut open and rebuilt.... Perhaps not worth with the effort?

Any "How To" sites, blogs or pages on this subject? I'd love to communicate with anyone who has documented such a project. I've worked a little with fiberglass, epoxy and polyesther resins. Enough to know that the best way is to pay someone else to do it or at least have a well thought-out plan.
 
There are a number of folks, some in the SE AK area, who have faced and resolved the wet core problem. Personally I would use marine grade plywood, but that is considerably more expensive. The cabinet grade marine plywood is excellent, but it may have interior rather than exterior grade glue. Saturating with epoxy, and sealing all holes, may be adequate.

The Ryobi $35 moisture meter, is adequate, as Sunbeam suggests, to find serious water intrusion.

The replacement of core is not technically all that hard, but it can be a messy and time consuming job. Several c Brats in your neck of the woods have done this on the older boats. It is definitely worth doing. The convexity is of concern--but new core should pull this out. Worse case, you might have to put in a couple of frames, when you do the new core--and then put on a deck over the outer hull on top of the frames.

I would have the C Dory on a perfectly flat and level floor when doing the recording. You may want some substantial weights to bring the plywood, with wet epoxy down to the bottom, and flattening it out. But I suspect after the core is out, that it will come right back to flat.
 
Greeb":2cebrk1u said:
Engine runs fine. I'm assuming do now that the prop is correct. What I'm more curious about is the concave bottom and whether it's flexing and/or waterlogged. Any histories of this? Did the design change at all when they changed from Hunky Dory to C-Dory?
Click to expand...

That's a couple mentions of "Hunky Dory." Several owners have named their boat Hunky Dory, but I am not aware of anything the factory produced being called that. Are you maybe referring to the name the previous owner put on the side of the boat?

The flat(ish) bottom, with the reverse chine isn't concave. These boats do not "jump" on plane the way some deep-V boats do... you may be planing and not aware of it. Without GPS or some way to determine the speed, you could possibly be on plane - the 22 should plane at about 12 to 13 knots.

It would be helpful to see some photos of you boat to better assess the situation.
 
With my CD22 there is no obvious transition to being on plane. With my ribs it was much easier to tell when you went on step. Being in an enclosed cabin on a C-Dory probably also helps hide the transition.

However, if you are getting about 17-20 mph at about 4K rpm you are doing fine.

A concave bottom might actually help you get on plane better because the curve at the back will have an effect sort of like trim tabs. Although if it is too pronounced you might get a negative pressure area under the boat that sucks it to the water.
 
It says "Hunky Dory" on the side of the house, where later models say "C-Dory". Don't have any pictures right now. I was told the boats were originally called Hunky Dory until another company with the same name (they sold boat plans) protested.
 
As to checking with moisture meters, are you all referring to checking the fiberglass for moisture? Rarely get a long enough dry spell to do that and I currently do not have dry storage. But if I could, would I be checking the bottom gel coat with a moisture meter ? Remove paint first?
 
As to planing/not planing, it's pretty obvious to me when it's on step. Just takes what seems a lot of effort to get there for a flat bottom boat. Also throws a good bit more wake than I would have anticipated. Like it's packing a heavy load. What are these 22 footers supposed to weigh?
 
Greeb":11n9fr0b said:
As to planing/not planing, it's pretty obvious to me when it's on step. Just takes what seems a lot of effort to get there for a flat bottom boat. Also throws a good bit more wake than I would have anticipated. Like it's packing a heavy load. What are these 22 footers supposed to weigh?
Click to expand...
 
Congratulations on the "new" boat, Greeb. I am guessing you got a great deal on the boat, or you wouldn't have bought it in suspect condition. The time, effort and cost to get her repaired should be well worth it. When I was searching for a C-Dory last fall, two of the first things that became abundantly obvious was the scarcity of C-Dorys for sale and how well they retain value. Looking forward to photos!

Ssobol, glad to hear you say that the transition is subtle on your boat. I thought it was just me! My 23 seems to semi-plane as soon as hull speed is exceeded, with very little extra effort. As far as I can tell, it is fully on plane at 11-12 nmh, but it is difficult to tell.

I am finally starting to get the hang of the trim tabs, emphasis on STARTING!
 
They typically weight about 4000-5500lbs on the trailer depending on options, fluids, and other cargo. The trailer represents roughly 850-1500lbs of that weight depending on construction and number of axles.

Greg
 
Sunbeam":1015pe4l said:
tomherrick":1015pe4l said:
The way I checked my hull was by using a pinless moisture meter and I found major amounts of moisture content in the core. ... These meters aren't cheap, but for this application I wouldn't buy the expensive ones unless you were going into business. Maybe someone who owes you has one you can borrow...
Click to expand...

Previously I had always used the "pro" moisture meters - and they are good of course. Then when I went to survey what ended up becoming my C-Dory 22, I wasn't able to bring one of the good ones along. I bought a pinless Ryobi moisture meter at Home Depot for, IIRC, around $35. I basically knew where I was looking for potential problem areas, and it did show me a couple of spots. When I later checked things out for real (bought the boat, repaired a few small areas, checked over basically all of the core) there was nothing that the moisture meter had not revealed (and where the meter had shown dampness, it did exist).

Sure, not as good as a higher grade moisture meter, but for my purposes it worked pretty well. Too, since you now own the boat, a few judiciously taken small "core samples" will tell you for sure (small drill, inspect the shavings the bit brings out).

As mentioned above, you'd think that if the hull were wet enough to be "going concave" due to it that there would be some stress cracks in various places (say, up and down the chine). Do you have anything like that? Can you see the bottom gelcoat or is it painted?

Would enjoy seeing photos of a Hunky Dory.
Click to expand...

This is one of the reasons I hang on this forum. I wasn't aware of such gizmos. Eventually my budget will allow me to purchase a bigger boat and when it does I'll have the moisture meter with me.

Nicely said folks.
 
"Hunky Dory" was a pretty popular name for the C-Dorys early on, and there were quite a few carrying that name, placed by the boat owner, even though they were built by C-Dory. Initially, and I think the C-Dawg and then the CBRAT sites had something to do with the naming and folks saw other boats having that name so the names branched into other names. (Like mine was originally named "Jim's Dorie")

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

JC_Lately_SleepyC_Flat_Blue_070.thumb.jpg
 
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