Hobie 17 wing holes cracked.

I just put my Hobie 17 (1985) away for the winter (Southern Illinois) and noticed cracks in 3 of the 4wing support holes in the hull. The cracks are both vertical and horizontal but are predominat in the middle. There is about an inch of water at the bottom of each support hole so the bottom appears to be solid.

My question is how do you repair the cracks? Perhaps a better question is repairs need to be made if the bottom appear to in one solid piece.

Appreciate any suggestions or recommendations.

Joe

Joe, This is a very common problem. Do you have inspection ports? If you do, the repair is simple, if a little messy. You wrap fiberglass strips saturated with epoxy around the wing well on the inside of the hull. I'll give more details when I know if you have the ports. BE SURE TO DRY OUT AND SEAL THE WELLS BEFORE YOU GET FREEZING TEMPS! Brian

The tubes structural strength is in the deck and at the base. The walls of the tube are nothing more than a water barrier. You could silicone around the wings when sailing... if you wanted to.

To repair, you need to access the inside of the hull at each insert. Install an inspection port in the deck or cut a sidewall. The repair is basic glass work, from inside the hull. Glass wrapped around the outside of each tube.

Matt is right on regarding the structual strength being at the base and the deck surface. I've done the repair at the base and did need to cut in inspection ports for access. Pain in the butt to get to everything but it can be done.

You could simply be seeing stress cracks in the surface gelcoat. If no water is seeping into the hulls you can probably ignore the surface cracks. My 17 has a few gelcoat cracks around portions of the deck hole and a few inside the sockets but no leakage.

Good luck, Tom G

Joe, Shirley and Gerald just got done working on her H17 because it was taking on a lot of water. If you arn't taking on water I wouldn't worry about it. Make sure that you have something over the top of the holes to keep them from collecting water this winter and freezing which then will break the sockets.

Mike Hill
Tiger #1520

More wing tube notes:

The 17 was originally designed to be as light as possible, but being a Hobie, being sailed by lots of different types of sailors, it had to be modified over the years to make it stronger. The tubes were one of these areas. We added more glass around them sometime in the 90's when it was being marketed as the Sport. But, Freezing water can crack anything. In addition partially inserted wings that get loaded can crack them as well as forcing the wings in or out of the sockets. Usually by forcing one end in more than the other. That is a very long lever arm from the front to the rear of a wing.

About to do repair on my wing tubes:

I have a 1991 17 Sport.. All 4 tubes are cracked at the very bottom of the tubes.. I live in New Jersey, so I assume it was from frozen water in the tubes. I definitely have water flowing into the hulls.

I have read a lot about the repairs and seen some pictures at http://imgur.com/a/EcHTi#uH37RW9 ..

We are planning to cut in the 5" inspection ports this weekend and take a look.. From the pictures at http://imgur.com/a/EcHTi#uH37RW9 it appears that the fiberglass holding the tubing to the hull is going to be blocking my access to the very end of the tubes where the cracks are..

Has anyone done this repair and can you give me some hints on properly making these repairs???

I've also seen this post on repairing without cutting in the inspection ports.. http://home1.gte.net/res07lm8/hobie/archives/v5-i2/tip84.htm

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Jeff Miller
Hobie 17 Sport

Wow, this is an old post brought back to life!

Solution depends on what the problem(s) is/are. Leaks in the tubes only or leaks and structural?

Fill all 4 tubes with water and determine which are really leaking. If only leaks then the epoxy or maybe even silicone may do the trick.

My repair involved structural as the front tubes had separated from the base sockets so I did cut in ports and glassed the base. Worked like a dream and not that bad a job.

At one time Hobie made vinyl plugs for the tubes to keep water out.
Good luck, TG

Hi TG, Yes, this was an old post! And thanks for your reply..

We filled all four tubes with water and they all drain into the hull (cracks are at the very bottom/end of the tubes)..

Structurally the tubes seem to be fine. They are in place without any movement.

I have to ponder whether to try the epoxy route first (quicker, easier, cleaner).. or not..

I have four of the rubber tube plugs.. Guess I forgot to use them one winter past?

Thanks again,

Jeff

BTW: Your location is White Bear Lake? We deal with a company in that town called the "Trike Shop" at 3744 Schueneman Road.. Nice group of people!

Knowing that I would go the epoxy or silicone route first. Since yours is a turbo it sounds like the base sockets are reinforced already.

Good luck, TG

Don't put silicon anywhere near your sockets. If you ever have to do a proper repair the silicon will make it hard. If you're going to go with this style of repair use a urethane type product not a silicon product.