Bill Jones - BillHawk

Hello! I found the forum in a roundabout way after finding a lonely sailboat sitting in Kilbourne, Ohio USA. I was intriqued by the hull shape and purchased the boat after being told it was a 1975 Hurley 17. I believe I have hull 248 judging from the sails and other than a cracked keel case she is in decent shape for her age with no soft spots and rigging and sails in good shape. Paint and woodwork need attention but I'm looking forward to working on and sailing her in the near future on area lakes.  

BillHawk wrote

Hello! I found the forum in a roundabout way after finding a lonely sailboat sitting in Kilbourne, Ohio USA.

What was the "roundabout way"? All those who contact the site from the US seem to have had difficulty in finding out about the SeaHawk. That may be because most report the boat was identified as a "Hurley 17".

Information from the first to contact the site can be found here:
https://www.seahawk17.org.uk/boat-gallery-world-puffin.php

Then there's Brian from Vermont:
http://seahawk-forum.62.s1.nabble.com/has-any-one-installed-a-bimini-tp3279715.html
(It seems he crept into the forum before I had instituted the current "Introduce Yourself" routine to avoid spammers and I don't know his surname.)

In addition I have had messages from a David Wisser, also based in New Jersey and there are postings in 2010 on the old SeaHawk YahooGroup from a guy from Arkansas who had just bought boat #131 (its sail number). So it appears that we are up to five US-based SeaHawks.

I was intriqued by the hull shape and purchased the boat after being told it was a 1975 Hurley 17. I believe I have hull 248 judging from the sails

As far as I know there is no official hull number on any SeaHawk. Such things are not required under UK law and it appears to be down to manufacturers as to whether they moulded anything into the hull.

other than a cracked keel case she is in decent shape for her age with no soft spots and rigging and sails in good shape.

The site has had two other reports of a cracked keel case. I speculate about it at:
https://www.seahawk17.org.uk/buyers-issues.php#keelhousing
If you have any better information I'd be interested to read your thoughts.

Paint and woodwork need attention but I'm looking forward to working on and sailing her in the near future on area lakes.

Let's hope it all goes well for you. This year I'm deep in a house move project that may keep me from sailing as much as I would like, so the more I hear about others sailing their SeaHawk the better. It won't make me jealous (I lie)!

One last thing... is "BillHawk" the name of your boat or just your username on the forum?

After buying the boat I started looking for information on Hurley's & finding no match I spent way too much time looking through Sailboatdata.com until I found a match. I was very happy to find your site and I'm overjoyed to find out how highly the SeaHawk is regarded by those who have sailed them. I'm sure I will be here frequently during this project even if it's just to look at all the completed boats that have been so well done.

Until reading your thoughts on the cracked keel case I was imagining that someone had tried to trailer the boat with the keel jammed in the down position. Obviously there are no tidal changes in Ohio so the idea never crossed my mind.

Good luck on your move, I will do my best to make you jealous but I have a long way to go before I put her back in the water. I'm honestly not sure what we'll name her but almost anything would be better than what the Admiral has come up with so far...