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H-18 hull repair #36050
07/24/04 09:19 PM
07/24/04 09:19 PM
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 8
M
mikeleg Offline OP
stranger
mikeleg  Offline OP
stranger
M

Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 8
Howdy!

My brother in-law has a 1978 H-18 with a large soft spot on the top of one of the hulls. The soft spot runs from the rear of the dagger board to the rear beam and is about 6-8” wide. Can this be repaired and what is the best approach? I was considering drilling holes through the gel coat (not through the fiber underneath) and injecting a resin with epoxy and filler. Will this work on such a large soft spot? Or, should we cut a hole in the hole and then patch the top? If I try the filler approach on a portion of the soft spot and it doesn’t work, will it be much more difficult to repair from the inside? Thanks a bunch.

Mike

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Re: H-18 hull repair [Re: mikeleg] #36051
07/25/04 07:54 AM
07/25/04 07:54 AM
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 805
Gainesville, FL 32607 USA
dacarls Offline
old hand
dacarls  Offline
old hand

Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 805
Gainesville, FL 32607 USA
I fixed my TheMightyHobie18 race boat with this exact problem: I had fallen heavily on it during a tack, and the soft spot grew across the whole panel. I set my SkilSaw to 1/8 inch of blade showing, & sawed a large straight-edged rectangular hole just thru the skin. Stay inside of the stock patterned surface: like about 1 1/2 inches from gunwhale (curved edges) because there is no foam sandwich underneath there.
Carefully peel off the skin from the foam because you will glue it back down later- use handsaw, bare hacksaw blade with tape on it, a long chisel or??

If the foam has turned to brown crumbly sawdust, then the outer skin and the underneath layer are not stuck to each other anymore: the rest of the boat may have the same problem.

Mine showed white foam but it was torn: I had to cut and sand it out, a big job to get neatly done. It was replaced with thin 1/8 thick surfboard foam sheet glued in with epoxy thickened with microballoons. When flat and curved to fit the deck curve (a BIG job sanding/filing with Shurform tool), then the skin was fit back into place. The skin was glued down as above with polyethylene sheet, thin plywood and cement blocks to press it down in place.
When hard, fill your saw kerfs with epoxy thickened with fumed silica gel. It will be hard for many years.

Then you can think about doing the other decks, caused by the boat sitting uncovered in the sun, full of water.


Dacarls:
A-class USA 196, USA 21, H18, H16
"Nothing that's any good works by itself. You got to make the damn thing work"- Thomas Edison

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