Hobie Cat Forums

hi there,

someone can tell me the amount of gelcoat i need to repaint my HC18 ?

Thanx
max

I am guessing the hulls are probably 4 feet in circumference, so
18 feet long X 4 feet circumference X 2 hulls = 144 square feet

Evercoat says that a gallon of their gelcoat will cover 50 to 60 square feet with a thickness of 20 mils. Source http://www.evercoat.com/imgs/pis/GELCOAT.pdf

_________________
Marc...
1978 Hobie 16 Keoke, sail# 36 84

That's a bit generous.

First of all, I recommend you not re-gel the deck. You'll fill up the non-skid pattern, rendering it useless. Use a polyurethane paint for the deck if you must.

I'd estimate the average projected hull width dimension at 2.5 feet. 2.5' x 18' = 45 sq ft.

One gallon of gel should be more than sufficient to coat one hull. Bottom line - get a gallon of gel and see how far you get. Then you can buy just enough to finish off the other hull.

I've only seen photos of 18s, I figured it's larger than a 16. A 16's hull is little more than 3 feet in circumference in the middle. Probably averages closer to 3' because the ends are smaller.

_________________
Marc...
1978 Hobie 16 Keoke, sail# 36 84

Plus you added the decks. Not a big deal, unless you're buying gelcoat @ $85/gal.

How bad is your existing gelcoat? I'd look into buffing it out first. Unless you sand it down to the resin I'd guess a couple gallons of gelcoat would add 20 pounds of dead weight and lower the value of the boat.

_________________
The ox is slow but the earth is patient

I refurbished my 18 this spring. I would get 2 gal. You'll have some left over.

Being quite busy I opted to try get the local Hobie shop to do this repair of the worn chime / keel and re-gel coat it for me.

Their answer was .... no that after the repair, they do not gelcoat but rasther buff instead. Reason was that gelcoat comes off from first landing onwards, so no point in doing it.

So from my point of view, a new looking boat is first prize and my boat is looking a bit tired. So where to from here.

_________________
Richard Stephens