flying in the face of all your advice ?

You good folks have told me how you feel about buying a boat with soft spots on the decks, but ... let me flog the topic one more time.

I live in south Georgia, 3 hours from any area that even knows what a Hobie 14 is.

But ... two blocks from here is a 1984 14T (retrofit) on a trailer. I know the owner. His wife wants to get it out of their yard. The boat looks to be low-hours, good sails & hardware ... but has been sitting in the open for a decade.

Both hulls have soft spots on the deck ... but I'm willing to use as much Git-Rot as necessary.

If I can get the boat & trailer for $500 or less, am I still making a big mistake?

Thanks again

I picked up my H-14 with registered trailer, and rock solid hulls for $800 Australian. Only issues with mine is that it is missing the jib and trapeze system to make it a Turbo (although it has a Turbo sticker on the side).

It has some slight fixable wear and tear on the main sail, and a chip off the tip of the port rudder. The tramp is pretty new, I swaged some new shrouds, got a new traveller car and a mast step link kit, so already spent $200-$300 on necessary replacements. Plus non necessary items like Easy Rite line, toggle pins, books etc.

So don't forget you'll spend a lot of money after buying it, regardless if the hulls need fixing.

If you can buy an '84 with all the equipment with it and all that is wrong is a few easily fixed soft spots for $500 or less? BUY IT. Some of the guys paid upwards of $2500+ for similar boats and had to put new sails and a comp tip on. You're golden at that price.

I fixed some soft spots in my kids 14 Turbo for less than $50.00
Git Rot and a small electric drill is all you need
This will turn soft spots into rock hard hulls

DO NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO WALK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HULLS THIS IS A SURE PATH TO DELAMANITION