Hi there, hope you have a (windy) weekend

now as I did the first try with my Sol Cat, I (again) learned that if I accidently put my foot (and weight, 120lbs) onto a hull, I hear a cracking sound. So I avoid it of course.

What's that ? My fiberglass getting old ? The hulls are "empty", shall I put some foam into them or an additional coating on top of the hulls ?

Or do you just "not step on them" ?


Thanks for your input.

Michael

The sound your hearing is most likely the the foam crunching as it seprates from the fiberglass. So don't sit on the decks. Also you might want to keep an eye on that spot. You can search this site for ideas on how to repair delamination.

Thanks for the answers guys,

There are just no signs of delamination ? all looks fine,
smooth and straight.

And delaminate from the foam ? I looked inside (via the deck ports, but I dropped the mirror .)
From what I could see, there is no foam, just black emptyness. Bt I'll try again.

How about filling the hulls with foam again ?

Thanks

if you were to fill the hulls with expanding poly urethane foam you would be adding an ENORMOUS amount of weight to the hulls, and the problem with poly urethane foam is that it will absorb and hold water (it will still retain its positive bouancy though) which will add even much more weight. If your hulls ever were "foam core", (and when they were made, about the only cat that was foam cored were Hobies) you can tell if the hulls are delaminated by walking along the hull and tapping it with your knuckles (or the handle of a screw driver), if the glass is sound it shound almost ring if there is delamination or the glass is very "tired" it will have a very dead sound sort of a thugg sound instead of a boing. (its a little hard to write down sounds)

You need to understand that delam is not something you can see (hopefully). I'm not sure if yours has foam or not, maybe someone will comment. I have a friend with a 76 P16 thats in perfect condition. A couple a weeks ago someone sat on the hull just foward of the front beam and we all heard that noise so I'm pretty sure it had a foam core. I'm assuming from what you described that the sound was indeed that sound no one wants to hear.

FYI foam core construction means the deck-hull has
about a 3/16" layer of glass on top. That is bonded to about a 1/4" layer of foam and then another 3/16" layer of glass. A sandwich. Delam occurs when the foam seperates from either layer of glass. If you push on the hull where it was sat on you will probaly find that the area is soft compared to the rest of the deck. Don't push too hard you don't want to spread the area, or like suggested above take the handle of a screwdriver and lighty tap and listen for a change of tone. Hope this helps.

Someone a while ago posted a picture of a hobie hull cut or busted open. If I can find I'll post it so you can see what a foam core laminate looks like.

Have Fun

For more information on the subject of repair of hulls/decks, check the excellent "On the Wire (tm)" articles.

Ref: http://www.thebeachcats.com/OnTheWire/www.west.net/_lpm/hobie/archives/v1-i5/techtips.html

See if you can identify which areas are 'creaking', and do a repair if feasible.

It's worthwhile to read the rest of the "On the Wire (tm)" archives also. Lots of great stories and tips, some of the humor sections are just hysterical..

http://www.thebeachcats.com/OnTheWire/catsail.com/archives.html

The Sol Cat 18 and 15 were not foam core boats. At the time they were built the most advanced hulls were on the Stiletto 27 with the Nomex honeycomb, aircraft epoxy, and E-glass.

Try to determine if some of the cracking sound is coming from the under the deck, outboard, where the top of the hull meets the underside of the deck. Look underneath just inside the lip of the deck to see if you see any cracking there.

Thanks all,

sorry for the late reply, was on the road.

I knocked on the hulls with a screwdriver handle, but couldn't really pinpoint the areas.

But I think I found at least 3 places that are suspicious. From your description, it doesn't look as if I could see the damage from the inside, otherwise I would feed a webcam into the hull to have a look ?

On the otherhand, I really don't feel up to drilling dozen of holes into the hull, filling epoxy in, filling the holes, sanding and painting again.

I think I just go sailing that cat until it falls to pieces.

Oh Rolf, and thanks for the tip with the OntheWire mag. I really liked the idea to buy long rubber gloves (like you need for cow inspections ROFL) to fill the inside of a hull with epoxy. That beats even the humor sections !!!

take care all

Michael