Damage at pylon on Hobie 16 hull, quality problem?

This drives me nuts! I bought the Hobie 16 three years ago and has races 4 times each year with the boat and now there has developed a small crack at the front pylon attachment on the hull. I sanded away the gelcoat to see if it went below the gelcoat and it did! I did some more sanding and couldn't really see any glasfiber, it was just polyester? I could actually chip away the polyester with a screwdriver, THIS SUCKS!!! Polyester without glasfiber is weak and brittle and is not the right material for a high stress area. Is this normal for the pylon deck attachment or is it a manufacturing fault?

My plan is to sand away material on both sides of the damage and patch it with epoxy and carbon.







/hakan

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Can you do that and still be class legal? Seriously..

Com on Rolf, I'm reparing the boat, not enhancing it, thats why I don't care so much about using carbon.

I can do it with glasfibre also, but then I need to sand away more materiel to avoid getting outside the original shape of the deck.

My question is if this is the norm for a Hobie 16 deck or if this is a manufacturing fault? I guess I could be tricky to get the glas fibre down in the pylon when working with the deck mould, but aren't they using vaccum bagging?

/hakan

I understand 100% what you are saying. But it is still a technicality someone could protest you on, or? You obviously dont think so, and if that is the status of the class where you sail, great!

I dont think the Hobie16 is vacuum bagged. Wet layup, hand consolidated.

Hobie 16 is vaccuum-bagged.

If it's less than 5 years old, it's still under warranty. Good luck filing a claim now that you've ground it down.

I wouldn't stress so much about it, but I would use polyester, not epoxy, to repair it. That way, you can spray gel over to finish it off.

Nobody is ever going to protest you for using carbon fiber to repair a 16. Besides, if it's covered with gel, how would they know? Other than the fact you broadcast it on the Internet?

When did Hobie start vacumbagging the 16? Just curious becouse I am pretty sure I read an article about the 16 where they said it was hand laid up.

1983

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A- The boat we are looking at here is built by Hobie Cat Europe.

B - I am not sure what their warranty is. Hobie USA is 1 Year, but when something is clearly wrong... we would cover it. You would have to contact your European dealer / Hobie Cat Europe.

C - Yes, the Hobie 16 uses some vacuum bagging process (in the US anyway). Specifically on the foam layer to make the foam adhere to the concave surface in the mold.

D - There should be glass in the pylon hump, but it may have some putty filler as well. I can not tell from the photos whether you have taken off the glass or not. Looks like gel coat and resin as described. The glass should be a layer or two right on the gelcoat. Any filler putty should be inside those layers of glass.

Thanks for your input!

I sanded away the gelcoat careful to avoid damaging the plyester below and hoped that the crack was just in the gelcoat (gelcoat cracks before
the glassfibre) but as I said before, I was wrong.

I sanded away more gelcoat on each side, about 1 inch, until I started to see a more normal laminate with glasfibre in it (it changes colour and you cant see through it anymore). Then I sanded even more to get a good area to get the repair to bond with glasfibre.

I chipped away the polyster patch that was without glasfibre and filled the gap with epoxy mixed with west micro fibres and put xxx-fibres with epoxy on top of that so it also covered the area where there where glasfibre was. I finished with peel ply.

I read the post about epoxy not bonding to good with gelcoat, but on the other hand epoxy bonds better with old polyester than polyester. I will use spray gelcoat on top of that and hope that it attaches good enough and try to polish it in nicely.

This damage was at a high stress area but I couldn't see any damage on the deck forward of the pylon or and cracks on the other side of the pylon. I guess I need to thank the bullet proof design for this!

For this minor repair I choosed to fix it myself instead of messing around with the Hobie dealer and trying to get the warranty to cover it.

/hakan

Read you bought your Hobie 16 three years ago and do some 4 races each year. Based on the white hull color I assume you are the first owner. Why did you check in the first place as the crack can hardly be seen? Did you have too much play / less stiffness between the hulls?
My H16 [#99173] is built 1992 / bought it some 5 years ago and I use it quite frequently. Seeing your pics I got a bit worried and tend to have a closer look myself as well
Eddie

Don't panic Flying Dutchman!!!
This is my third Hobie 16 and I've never heard or seen any cracks like this before, so my conclusion is that this must have been a misstake in manufacturing of the deck.

/hakan