Hi there!

I'm in a big need of good information. I have a possibility ty get a Hobie FXOne, fully equipped with all the competition gears, with a reasonable prise. The only problem is that the other hull is in two peaces. The boat was damaged last summer in a competition, where a "brutal german" run over the boat.

Now, what I need is some tips&tricks of the work. No.1 is it worth of trying or should I just give up and buy a new hull? No.2 in theory I know how I should do the work. Since the hull's are symmetrical. I will make a jig of the left hull. Then I clean up the right one and place it in to the jig and start gluing. But I have heard some interesting rumours of polyester, that it is hard to repair the p. parts with polyester. I should maybe use some other materials? True or false? Which material? Any other tips? No.3 How do I manage the weight? I don't want a boat which is unbalanced. No.4 What about the finishing? How to get a nice shiny surface? Do I need a piano repair guy to work on that or is it possible to get a good result with home equipments and moderate skills of painting (I am a pationed fellow with good sanding moves, wax on wax off)?

All the information are valid and appreciated.

Greetings from frozen Finland.

-Nico

For the amount of work involved, the price really should be great. You also need to check that other parts like e.g. beams was not damaged in the incident. If you have to rebuild panels, you must make moulds and stuff which adds time and cost to the project.

1: It certainly is possible, but will probably add some weight to the boat. It will take some time.

2: You want to use epoxy for repair work. I would first have sanded the bevels I needed, then set up the parts in the jig. You will probably have to consider removing the deck when gluing the parts together.

3: If you work clean and smart, I dont think you will notice the difference in weight between the hulls. If you are a top notch catsailor amongst the best at the worlds you would probably notice.. That is my guess

4: If you work clean and smart, you should be able to get a nice finish by yourself.

If the price was right, I would jump into it. But if you are unfamiliar with composites and multihulls, I would be careful and try to find someone with experience to help out.

Pictures btw. would be nice, to assess the damage and the repair work neccesary. You can get some really good opinions from the guys with lots of boat-fixing-projects experiences on this forum.

how much is it for another hull?

i'm not sure what an FX one hull looks like but you'll need to have lots of space, decks off, to to do a good repair from the inside out

anyone got any ball park figures for how long it would take to do as he plans? i'd say a total close to 50? hours for a beginner and costs of around $200???

and yes epoxy has a better record bonding to polyester than polyester does, esp. in such a structurally stressed repair

Sounds good:) I'm pretty optimistic also about the work, but I was concerned if my optimism comes from inexperiency.
I've been sailing multihulls most of my life, but I'm not "hifi" person, so small changes in weight is fine. I got prise from a local dealer for new hull, approx. 6000€, so I quess it might be worthwile to try?!

If I will jump to the project I will upload some pic's and definetly I will keep people updated of the process;)

6000€ for ONE hull??? That's like $8800. That sounds COMPLETELY ridiculous, they're not made of gold, right?

Jeremy, does this price sound crazy to you too?

Mike

Hobie 20 hull is $5,055
Hobie 17 hull is $2,900

Hello Nicolas,
Here in the U.S. the list price for an FX hull is $3700. Add shipping from Hobie US to me and crating charge. They come from Europe wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap in a dedicated container, which isn't sufficient for a LTL shipper.
This price is a few years old, and with the decline of the dollar it might be around $5000 by now, but that won't affect you since you're in Europe. That is the most current pricing that I have.

How bad is the damage? Post a pic if you can. As my glass guy says "Every fiberglass boat can be repaired, depends on how much money you want to spend." The FX hull is totally accessible once you pull the decks off, which make elaborate repairs more feasible.

Also, Do everything that Rolf said except 1 thing. For most repairs use what the boat was made of. If the boat is polyester, use polyester. There are 2 main reason for this:

1)So your new layer of gelcoat cures properly. Sometimes, gel will not cure correctly over epoxy.

2)Also, for boats like the FX and most other beach cats (excluding the more high tech models) the added strength is not needed, and not worth the extra cost. The exception is when bonding a seam or some other hardware. I think the deck seam is either 5200 or vinylester. I'm not sure. Let's not get too technical until you come to those steps in the repair.

To get the shine, you'll use gelcoat. Gelcoat is very, very forgiving and durable. Once you master it, you'll be the envy of your cat sailor friends. It can solve all sorts of problems, and is well worth taking time to learn.

Send off some pix, there are a lot of pros here that can help you out.

If this is the FX one that I suspect it is then the hull is in two parts, basically another boat went through the hull.

Could be fixed but requires some skill, mould (from another hull?) and tender love <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />. Also in Finland everything costs, so fixing it might be worth it if insurance company doesn't charge too much.

Just got an email back from my friend Sander at Hobie Holland and the price for a hull is $4440 EU. Call him up if you need anymore info.