Well, I found a soft spot fore of the aft crossbar on the h17. I have a question about repairing it, since I have an inspection port just on the other side of the crossbar. Is it possible to repair it from under the deck? I'm not to keen on drilling into my gelcoat honestly.

The soft spot is from the skin/foam/skin sandwich separating. Glassing inside will build up the inside skin and add weight without fixing the problem.



You could turn the hull upside down and from the port, drill the series of holes, mix the epoxy, inject it and tape each hole as it starts to overflow. However, my arms aren't that long. ;>)



The best thing to do is drill a series of two holes every four inches overlapping the soft spot. Use graph paper as a guide. Drill only the top skin (about 1/8 inch). DO NOT go thru the second skin. Mix up epoxy and inject it into the holes until it flow out the next holes. Wipe and tape the holes and move on until you have reached the other end. Don't mix the epoxy hot. You don't want it to set while you are working. If you take your time and do it right, most people won't notice. And don't use fiberglass resin. I used West Systems on both sides of my TheMightyHobie18.



If you don't want to attempt this, half the Hobie owners have done this. And for the price of a few beers....



Spinakerjohn

I think that I might be purchasing a few cases in the near future

I had an old Hobie 16 that I repaired using the epoxy injection method. That 16 is long gone, but if I did it over again, I would go from the inside out on the repair of soft spots.



Cut a "pumpkin lid" in the hull so you can get at the soft spot. Then do glass reinforcing underneath the affected area. Reglass the pumpkin lid back in place, gelcoat over that, and voila! You're done!



This will result in a much better repair, as well as a much more asthetically pleasing repair.



Good luck,



Tim Johnson



P.S. I give credit for this idea to a couple of pros who told me this is how they did it. One of them builds the Supercat, and the other is a Hobie Cat dealer in Omaha.

oi, if one thing bothers me more than drilling holes in my hull, its definitely cutting a giant hole in it.



I'll just drag her out to the lake when I kniow a bunch of hobies are gonna be out there, and see if I can pay one of the ole chaps to fix it for me.

Chicken! Boc, boc!

Ok, I just tried to do this, and I botched it I think.

The epoxy wouldn't go in between the layers, primarily I think because there isn't ANY separation between the layers.

I squeezed with all my might but there was simply no epoxying coming out of that bottle.

heres a picture of the damage I did...

Looks just like the problem I had, same area. I put some info on the paint prep thread you posted earlier.

Good Luck!

Thanks for your help. I'm going to use some hardwood and reinforce the area.

See my response in your other post (Trying to "catch up" on the forum so got to your other post first!)-

Kirt