The good news is I've got a functional Wave. The bad news is that it isn't perfect. The only mistake I made in my repair efforts was drilling a hole to try pulling with. Pressurizing the hull, heat and beating did quite a bit. I then got a 5" contoured screw-in port and cut a hole just in front of the forward beam. That's when I found out that there's 3/8" foam behind the skin. I used a little bottle type hydraulic jack to push the dents out of the deck and beat/pried the deck to keel crease out as best I could. The foam backing had cracked so it wouldn't allow things to go all the way back together. If I decide to try more repairs I'll probably try melting the foam but for now I'm sailing. I also added the Hobie compression tube between the bows. The boat seems to sail fine. It'd been in the water behind my house until yesterday when I took it out due to Katrina. It was blowing 15~20 or better down the lake as I sailed it down to the ramp. I've only sailed it 4 or 5 times and this was lots more wind than we've had. What a hoot! I'm old and conservative (comes with age and no health insurance)but tentatively tried to push the boat and maybe fly a hull. About the time I got going well I hit something that kicked up both rudders (the wind was blowing the water out of the lake pretty quickly) so rather than crash I went in. I did bury the bent bow pretty good and it didn't seem to move. Perfect 4 point landing on the boat ramp. Good thing the water was so low and the ramp all slimey. I've attached an after picture to compare with the before. The light is a little flat as the creases are not quite as well defined as they really are. In any case the keel is straight, the bows square to the beam and it sails fine. Sorry, this is a little long. Hopefully something I've said will aid someone else.
Tom

Hi Tom,
Thanks for the report. Hope we see you at the Wave NAs in Pensacola Oct 14-16, or the Nationals in Key Largo in December.
Need a place to stay for the Key Largo event, I know of a really nice place down the street from our house. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Rick

Gee, thanx Rick. Will you go to your neighbor's and ask if I can stay? I don't think she's talking to me. At least now I don't feel so guilty about not getting my parts from you;>). Actually I blew it buying from Murray's. They were nice enough but nobody there seemed to know anything about Waves. I ended up spending almost $150 and 2 weeks to get the bow spreader. I had to research it myself and tell them what parts I needed. I don't think you're going to see me racing anytime soon as I have no clue about sailboat racing. Maybe I should get one of your tapes. I never thought I'd race anything that didn't have a throttle (horses, sailboats, marathons). However, after sailing the Wave in 20 knots of wind it's not like no throttle it's like stuck throttle! I can't wait to get back out there. Boy, I really miss Blackwater Sound!
Tom