TOPIC: Hi Laker Boat A First Project.

Hello there, I’m a newbie to this site and forum although I have been poking around for about a week or so.
I just bought a 14 foot 1967 Hi Laker made by Nelson Plastics in Seattle (no longer in business). I started poking around the web for info in the boat and the company and found Fiberglassics, glad to be here.
Anyhow, I got the boat for $400 along with full canvas, a 1999 Easy Loader in great shape and a 40 horse Tohatsu the previous owner blew up the power head on.
The Tohatsu was deemed pretty much unrepairable for any kind of reasonable price so I had it removed for scrap.
Now, I just figured on cleaning the boat up, filling some holes, painting and polishing and so on. However, as I was drilling out (enlarging for filling) some holes in the transom I noticed in some places, instead of wood chips and shavings (all very dark) on the drill bit, it was more powder.
Also, some of the speckled paint on the inside of the transom came away when I removed a large washer and the plywood underneath it was wet.
This leads me to believe that I’ll be replacing a transom.
Also, between the hull and floor it’s hollow and when I removed the outside drain screw and tilted up the trailer, brown water! Not a lot, but enough! I’ll probably then have to cut the floor out and replace the stringers. However, I had thought about cutting some 2 inch holes in the floor to let her dry out and possibly filling with expandable 2 part polyurethane foam in lieu of new stringers. Is this a good idea?

I hope not to make too much of a pest of myself, this is a first time thing for me and I realize that there’s a wealth of knowledge here. Maybe my mistakes might also help another newbie/firstie like me.
Any and all help and advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

AlexM,

WELCOME ABOARD.

YEP. It's time to "pop the top" and replace everything that even seems to be marginal. = BEST WISHES on your project.

yours, satx

It seems to be very common with these old boats. If you like it enough, fix it, and do it right. The blue and white boat on my profile photo is a 10 1/2 foot High Laker I had a few years ago. Didn't have any problems with it other than being to small.
I started to redue a Club Lido, problems, problems etc. Then I went to work on a Su-Mark, more problems, A '59 Sea Bee that may get done some day but.....
I have now gone all aluminum to avoid problems...... and here I am, reviting in a new aluminum transome on my Clipper. Then put new wood in place. O well. I like it and am going to get'er done before spring.
Good luck with your project. The High Lakers have a nice shape to them and have that lapstrake look to the sides.
You have a lot of good advise here in the club.

Thanks for the input. I like the lines of the old boat. Used to see lots of them around Puget Sound back in the 70's and early 80's fishing and crabbing.
They were probably cheaply built and sold mass market, but it's a classic from the Northwest.
Anybody know any of the history of these boats, there's no info that I've been able to find on the internets?

Not much available via Google Books or News Archive. There was somewhat of a discussion on the following forum post:

www.gamefishin.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11030

Not much info out there on these boats. Could they be the boat version of the Ford Pinto?