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 . . .

Hin #
 

Mario,what is the Hin # from the transom starboard side,if there is none then look on your title or hand written under the dash.Call if you want to discuss.#12-607-3115. Bud

Mario,

Mine ('76 27 sport V deck) was partially glassed. Apparently all 27 sport's are not equal.........wonder if your '68 was race quality?

A question to sport owners?.......What would be the period correct clamshells for a '76 sport?...........size approx. would help & pictures would be even better.

My original 1967 Magnum 28 inboard race boat, Don`s old No4 was fully bonded, panel braced and constructed like a brick outhouse.
My September 1971 27 sport hull No 159, had a part bonded deck and except for the bulkheads has no panel or cross hull bracing.
First step of my restoration was to remove all deck to hull screws and bolts, drive in wedges, clean out the space between the apply a good healthy filling of Sikkaflex and fit new screws whilst the bonding agent was still wet.
On completion of the fit out the new rub rail will be bolted on
through both the hull and deck.
I think the point here is in 1971 when my boat and several other left the factory they were fitted with a basic egine package with a declared speed of 55 MPH. Today some of these boat have been re- engined and claim speeds of 80 plus Hi Life for one.
Having spent most of my life in Aerospace, F1, Indy car and performance boat manufacturing, just fitting bigger engines to increase overal performance is not the answer. Stuctual improvement are just as important but for those who still only want to do 55 MPH on a flat day fully bonded or not is still an option if you keep up the maintance.

How Fast is to Fast
 

You don't have to go all out to enjoy your Magnum...crusing speed is just great.Racing is a whole different ball game.My two cents. Bud

Spot on Bud, I agree

I don't think mine was glassed together.

Bud,

my 1968 boat was built for a George Butler, of founder Butler Aviation and the owner of several car dealerships around Boston, Butler Chevrolet if I recall. He was from Marblehead, MA. As it has been a NH boat for many years there is only a bill of sale from G Butler and the second owner to me.

There is nothing written under the deck or instruments, nothing on the transom. I've inspected the bow area and the bow lifting ring anchor point, as some old Donzi's were labeled with hull numbers in those spots.

Presently I'm rebuilding the transom and in the process I'll finally strip off the imron and see what the original hull color was.

Mario L.

Hull #
 

Mario,my guess is it is hull # 41 which was sold to Boston Boat Sales on 3/28/69. It probably is a 68 because the keel might have been layed in 68. Have no color or anything else on the build sheet. It was the only boat sold to anyone in Boston in 68 or 69. When you strip the imron off you might be able to find the Hin #. Bud

My 1973 sedan was a production boat. As you can see from the pic's the screws in the beak missed the deck. These Mags ran around 55 mph back then with out to many issues. I dont plan to run faster than that when this one is done, but I will glass the hull to the deck. With todays big power better make sure everything is right.

After alot of you weighed in now, the one thing that seems to be more apparent than any other issue concerning the High Life tradegy is the in-adequate bonding of hull & deck.... No one can truly say what happened that day, but the question of "what might be learned" is more clear today.