This seems to be true for all Hawk 20s day boats whether old or new. What is the root cause? Probably not any single factor, but a combination of the inaccuracy of the mould used to make the locker upstand, and the thickness (or rather thinness) of the sealing strips used under the locker lids. A friend who owned and raced one of the very first Hawk 20 day boats in the early 1990s had the same

Used some Y-10 to clean the hull. It worked a treat and took staining out of the glassfibre that elbow grease was not able to shift. It really was as easy as brush it on, and wash it off with a hose and cloth. I’ve done this when the boat is out of the water.

 

Price is about £10 per jar and it should be available at most chandleries. I reckon a jar should do two hull cleanings.

 

Y-10 uses

The above photo shows two jib fingers side by side (viewed from above). The fore stay runs up and down inside the crook of the U. Note the wear on the left hand jib finger in the crook of the U.

 

The finger on the left, with the clevis pin, is a replacement bought in 2007 and the one on the right came with the boat circa 2002. The new ones are thinner metal and more quickly develop a sharp edge

Worth checking if your anodised aluminium mast step (the metal plate on the fore deck under the foot of the mast) has any holes elongated by the D shackles (used to secure the main and jib halyard blocks). The owner kindly let me photograph the assembly and it appears the D shackle was pulled through the aluminium in the course of normal racing. I don’t believe the boat is more than a few years

The owner kindly let me photograph this slightly different way to secure the outboard well blocks.

 

Apparently it was done because the self tappers securing the latches pulled out of the blocks, and there were only so many times you can replace the previous self tappers with larger ones. Having said that, this method of securing appears to give slightly faster and easier fastening.

 

The approx