Newbie intro

Hello Lads and Ladies.
My name is Mike Chambers, and I bought my first sailboat a couple of weeks ago. It's a 1977 vintage Force 5, and I am looking forward to restoring it and learning how to sail on it.
Learning to sail for my 59th birthday.

The PO moved here from Texas, inverted it on wood blocks about a foot off the ground, and left it to sit for 15 years.

Fiberglass and paint skills I learned in the '80s when I was racing NHRA and SCCA and building my own cars. Plus I have owned several power boats over the decades.
My boat is complete but the wood is rotten and there is an old crappy repair at the bottom of the daggerboard trunk. My new sail came from Intensity last weekend, but I am waiting to get everything in proper nick before I float the old girl.
But any and all advice I can get is welcome.

If I may make a suggestion to the site's content, a series of close detail pictures of each feature of the boat showing how it should look with everything in proper order would be extremely helpful to us noobs.

Thanks, 4EYES.

Welcome 4EYES -
This is our new website. The old is still out there and it does have photos. I hope this link works for you
force5.us/main/index.php?option=com_joomgallery&Itemid=91
It should take you right to the photos section. If not this will take you to the main site and you can look around.
force5.us/main/
We all know you will love what the Force5 will give you, once you get the feel for her. If you are truely learning to sail for the first time might I suggest, while you are cleaning her up and making her "yours" that you take some lessons on say a sunfish (also made by AMF)? that way you will have the basics down when you get aboard her for the first time.
Congrats and enjoy all the passion you are feeling
RobK

Man I don't know if you got the chance to check out the "gear" photos or not but it looks like the "old" web site is signing OFF, soon.

Chris is transfering as many of the photos as he can - so keep looking on this site for updates or downloads of past photos. I hope you get a chance to see what you are looking for - if not ask on a new thread and likely someone will post a photo or two when they can.
Once again, welcome!

Thanks for the info. Looking right now and will download any pertinent pics.

I am adding a hatch to the rear port side to fix a hull damage on the chine, and I will be adding one in the front to facilitate the mast step reinforcement. So far my mast step is watertight, so I want to do the fix before it gets damaged.

I wouldn't add a port to fix the chine. This is very easy to fix from the outside. I can give you more detail instructions on how to fix it. It is very simple.

I tend to overbuild when doing repairs, and figured new layers of glass front and back would be better.
But if I need to add a hatch to fix/beef-up the rudder mount, I can get a wetted piece of glass cloth on a stick and dab it in place. I would prefer putting both hatches on the centerline anyway.

Thanks again for the link to the old site, seeing pics of the daggerboard trunk in old "build threads" help recreate the part.