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soft spots #8026
06/19/02 07:22 PM
06/19/02 07:22 PM

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I've noticed a lot of posts about soft spots on hobie hulls. I have a 16 thats 20yrs old, should I be looking for soft spots? Are they obvious things? I wax my boat twice a year by hand but have never noticed any part of the boat to be soft.

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Re: soft spots #8027
06/20/02 02:24 PM
06/20/02 02:24 PM

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Soft spots ... very very bad... unfortunately not all that uncommon in the older boats. they usually occur about 1-2 feet in front of the forward pylons in the hull and are easily detected by simply pressing with the heel of your hand firmly on the top of the hull, if it flexes at all you have a soft spot.. depending on how easily it flexes will determine the severity of the soft spot.. usually hulls that have spent a lot of time just sitting especially in the sun without being used are most prone to the problem. while waxing the hull will maintain the aesthetics it does nothing to prevent the soft spots. Soft spots occur from any moisture that is within the hull evaporating up into the Fiberglass/foam/fiberglass sandwich that is the hull of a hobiecat. when enough moisture gets in there it causes that sandwich to delaminate or seperate and lose its integrity. there are several ways to fix this problem which are very effective, However if the delamination is really bad there can be little hope. I should know, the first hobie 16 I bought was a '79 and riddled with soft spots and I did my best to reinforce every one of them, Alas to no avail, about 2 weeks after doing all the work I was out sailing and flying a hull when the leeward hull snapped right in half 2 feet in front of the forward pylon putting a screeching halt to my day of sailing and causing me to go on the hunt for new hulls. so if you use your boat regularly do your best to drain those hulls as completely as possible and always leave the plugs out of the hulls when they are sitting to allow any evaporating moisture to escape so as not to find its way into your foam sandwich... Hope this helps.


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