Hi, Azcat,

I owned a Sol 18 for a number of years and can answer all your questions. I have some photos that I will e-mail to you and will also send many e-mails that I've sent to restorers of the Sol 18's during the past couple of years.

Aftermarket tramps will slide onto the boat via a bolt rope on the hulls. The tramp is a lace-up with lacing amidship. I have a photo. Endcaps removal? No. The boltrope on the each of the two halves slides into the aluminum guide along the inboard gunwale of each hull. A photo will follow.

I weighed 130 lbs when I was sailing the boat. It was a lot of boat for a small skipper but I didn't have trouble righting it by myself without any aids. I did it by swimming the tip of the mast into the wind. Then held onto a righting line attached to the hull while I leaned out as far as I could while standing on the hull in the water. Seal your mast caps and all the rivets with Goop/silicone. It always came up, eventually.

I stepped the mast with a winch mounted on the trailer. Tie the mast down near the step with some line in case it wants to jump off the ball during stepping. The mast did go side-to-side a little but no so much as to stop the stepping. I think I raised it with the main halyard and then pinned the forestay to the adjuster.

My boat was double-trapped. I didn't use footstraps. Too scary. It seemed like a great opportunity to break your ankles. I rigged a "chicken line" and barefooted it on the hull while out on the wire. This was back in the late '70's-early '80's. That's what we did back then. We were indestructable.

The daggerboards will get stuck about two inches into the hull. Rig a shock cord line through a hole in the top of the board to keep them semi-secured. They may slip down into the dagger well a couple of inches before they stop. Those are Nacra 5.2 boards.

The rudders setup and the auto release worked well. I never had a problem but I kept them adjusted properly. I may have a photo close enough to show them.

The dolphin striker is below the foward beam. On the 18 it the vertical rod, threaded on one end, was connected by horizontal aluminum flatbar, about 1/4" thick x 2" wide, extending from hull to hull. It dipped down at an angle to connect to the rod about 6" below the forward beam.

The 18 does have diamond wires and the boat needs them. I'll send photos to you.

I loved that boat. It was durable, fast, and terminally cool...until the Nacra 5.2 came along.

Check back to re-read this same post this weekend. I may do some editing for accuracy. Send me your e-mail and I'll zip the photos to you.