HIGH LIFE - Is it to early to ask?
 

The sudden death of High Life aboard his Magnum sedan was shocking to say the least - can't imagine the loss to his family. I am a 27 Magnum owner and feel abit anxious about the hull & would like to know if anything can be learned from such a thing. Forgive me if I've stirred up emotions too soon.........Thanks, Scippy

Scippy,

If anyone will know it's Charlie from Top Banana . . he and I chatted after the accident . . Don't know if the hull was recovered?

I to have the same thoughts and concerns . .

Mario L.

This is just a thought I have about sedans. When my sedan did the swan dive off the rack a few years ago the hull was fine, But the deck lifted off, reason most of the screws did not bolt the deck to the hull. My deck was never put on right. There was'nt any glass bonding the hull to the deck. On my old sport Emerald City glassed the deck to the hull and that Mag would go through anything. I just wonder if High Life's sedan was built like mine ??? And that may be a reason the deck may have peeled back, if that's what happened.

I remember (when my boat was transported) watching my deck flex (up & down) around the rub-rail. The screws had become loose under normal stress. Could not imagine how the deck would stay on with any ocean force. I did find a section (6' aft of the bow that runs approx. one bulkhead to stern) glassed in & appears to be factory...............I will glass in & bond the remaining areas.....This is a serious subject.......Mario & Mark, thanks for the feed back!

Seen a real nice looking Sedan this past Friday heading into poormans, looked to be restored, fresh white gel coat and no winshield... H20 was that you?:drink:

All the high performance boats back then were SCREWED together. Every 6 inches a screw was put through the deck into the top lip of the hull and into a small piece of wood inside the hull, that the screw bit into.

The race boats were glassed, hull and deck, but the normal production boat building process, was to just screw the hull and deck together.

My own thought on this accident is the screws failed, after 30 plus years of running hard. When the boat dove into the wave. the pressure ripped the deck off and caused the injuries to the people in the front of the boat.

Hindsight is 20/20 and we all know how great and solid it is, when a deck and hull are glassed together.....if you have an old boat and run it hard, get it glassed and retighten all those screws too.

On my Banana boats, we bolt the hull and deck together and then break off the end of the bolt...... and then glass over all of that to make the hull and deck one piece. We didn't back in the 70's, so if you have an old Banana, make sure you get that done.

My son just restored Banana boat # 2 and he put a new deck on the old hull and fastened it the new way. The photos of the resto are on the banana section of OSO.

Was not me, my sedan is still sitting waiting for it's restoration to begin. I have not seen that white one.

When I redid the Plum Crazy Sport and replaced all the rub rail, we thru bolted all the screws that we could with new SS screws and elastic stop nuts. it felt like it took forever, as back then, we didn't have a power screw gun.

thank you
Jim

Deck / Hull
 

On our rebuilds we glued new wood strips inside along where deck is attached and then screwed the rubber/plastic rub rail ever 6",then we attached the S/S rub rail which is screw also every 6".On the 29"9 we will screw,bolt and then glass were the deck and the top come together. Bud

Apparently Magnum Marine changed the way they assembled boats . . my 1968 Vee windshield 27 has glassed in bulkheads, and the hull to deck joint is glassed as well. Bulkheads are +/- every 4 feet back from the bow and are glassed to the hull and the underneath of the deck.
Bud, from your records I have never been able to ID the hull number of my boat . . .