Your post caught my intrest...and I am currently rebuilding a H17 and had to install access ports for a repair. I still had the cut out piece for the hole, so I decided to sand the texture portion to see what happens. I was able to sand it smooth and the resin and glass from below the gelcoat started to show through as i just sanded it level with the center non textured section. This kind of makes sense because the gelcoat is sprayed into a mold and will form a uniform film thickness.

I just painted my 17 last october, and after making all of the repairs and fairing everything, I sanded everything but the texture with 320 paper, and just cleaned the texture real well with a scrub brush and acetone. I then rolled on 2 coats of interthane plus, even over the texture, and it looks great. The finish does not build up much in the texture. I used white, although the off white may have been a better choice, so if it chips or scratches it will just show the white gelcoat below the paint and hopefully not be noticable. No primer was needed. E-mail me if you want some details.

Also, on your soft spot, I had a soft spot like this on a older 17 I had and it did not appear to be delamination. It seemed it had been steped on carelessly or a heavy object on it and it kind of crushed the structure of the glass and foam not cosmetically but damageing it internal strength. I epoxyed a peice of hardwood to the underside and it fixed it perfectly. You could glass in a piece of PVC or even a Christmass wrapping paper roll tube to strengthen it. (the paper tube is just to give the glass shape untill it sets up, it will eventually rot away) I had to cut out some flotation foam to get to it, just put it back in when finished.

Mike

P16
H17 in progress