I have a 2003 H16 in near new condition. I have discovered small hairline cracks under the lip in the area of the anchor bar. I now set up my rig tight to prevent the mast from wrenching on the shrouds in light air and rough seas.

My question is: Are the stock anchor bars simply too short to distribute the load of the shrouds? I was going to have longer bars made but it seems that they would have to be perfectly shaped to match the for and aft curvature of the hull. Perhaps Hobie has reinforced the area where the anchor bars are now and replacing them with longer ones might make the problem worse? Perhaps laying some glass and resin under the lip might help but there's not a lot of room for reinforcement.

I see in the forums people having delamination problems when this weak area does finally give.

Ideas? Comments?

Han,

As a new Hobie 16 owner myself, I cannot speak to the reinforcement of that area from experience. However, I have two things that may help you. First, these are competitive boats that have been around for quite a long time using a nearly unchanged hull design and construction (as I understand it) for all those years. Therefore, it would be VERY unlikely that a structural/design weakness would be found in such an obvious high-stress location at this point. Two, I have significant experience with composites and fiberglass boats and I believe I know what you may be observing. Those hairline cracks are likely occurring in the gelcoat layer only. This kind of "crazing" is very common in gelcoated fiberglass construction and is the result of only two things 95% of the time. The first would be slight flexion of the glass laminate (the meat and potatoes of the hull itself). After completely restoring two of these hulls myself, I can tell you that due to both the thickness of the laminate in that area and the actual design of that lip, there is very little flexion to worry about under normal use. Second (and most likely), the gelcoat in that area may have been applied a little too thick and consequently underwent a little too much shrinkage (like all commom resins) while curing. This leads to "hairline" cracks. It is cosmetic only and not to be worried about - especially if it is only under the lip. Gelcoat contributes nothing to the strength of your boat.

Delamination or "soft spots" as it is said, is the description used to explain the separation of the fiberglass layer from the (foam in this case) core. Much of the Hobie hull is, in-fact, a "sandwich" cored construction - laminated fiberglass over a foam core - then laminate fiberglass again on the inside. All this forms one big "cored" laminate construction. People are, unfortunately, not specific when using the term "laminate". They do not differentiate between laminated fiberglass or the more aggregate laminate of the "cored construction" as a whole. In any event, the lip of the hull is solid fiberglass laminate without any foam core. Although it is true that delamination can occur within the fiberglass layers themselves (independant of any "core"), that is not what is generally referred to in the Hobie community, and not likely what you are experiencing with your boat. So, once again you do not have to worry. The anchor bars should be fine as is.


Hope this helps

Dave

Wow,

Thanks for such a thorough answer. I got a reply at Hobie's website which agreed with you.

Han