Hobie Cat Forums

I just bought another 18 that I got a ridiculous deal on. 650$. complete boat with wing seats, and cat trax. gentleman was moving and sailed it half a dozen times over the last summer and he had the boat for quite sometime and always sailed it with wings, now that said. There were no soft spots in the tops of the hulls. But.... upon further investigation, she happens to be a redline hull, and the red glue at the front cross bars is cracked. I really only bought the boat for the wings.

Now... I purchased a 18 last summer that I restored. This boat has a solid aluminum mast. It is not a redline boat, but... the port hull in-front of the rear cross bar had been fixed for delam. Low and behold at the end of the summer the starboard hull in front of the rear cross bar is de-laminating now and needs to be fixed.

SOOOO... do I fix the redline hulls and sail it.

Or do I cannibalize the redline boat, and fix the boat with the delam hulls and install the wings on that boat.

now I know Im leaving out imperative information because I have yet to pull the redline boat apart and see how bad it is, but if the front is cracked, the back is probably cracked which requires installing more port holes.

You may not like any of my suggestions.....

1. Buy a brand new set of H18 hulls from Jim Sohn of Des Moines Iowa...if they are still for sale. These are the very last pair of brand new hulls. After this, no more.

2. Strip down both boats, soap test, inspect, and rebuild, rebuild and rebuild. Lots of work, worth it in the long run.

3. Pick up a used Tiger, and drop $2K for wings.

Minus 20C last night, Rideau Canal is open for skating, however I cannot stop thinking about sailing. Enjoy your H18's....a good 'winter works' project.

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1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

We've also got a set of hulls at the factory still.

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Brendan Castile

Don't tempt me......

my winter works project is to install the spin I bought from Clint....
and re-build a set of daggers...

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1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

John,
-20°C? have you thought about Ice Boating? A DN would be really nice!

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Chris
'88 H18SE Arís

how much are those hulls sitting in the factory?

Explain what you mean by delam. Are we talking soft decks (something that is common in front of the rear cross bar and in most cases easily remedied with a drill and some epoxy) or something worse?

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Irie, mon....
'82 Hobie 18 SE with '85 Nationals Prism (White) sails
'73 Laser HID# 3463

What does this mean? Cracked where? Inside, outside, this may mean nothing and all you may need to do is the recommended reinforcements.



No! dump the hulls. The redlines might be fine but don't waste your time on the delam. It will only continue.

New Hulls are nice but if you are a recreational sailor don't spend the money. Leave them for the hard core 18 guys and go find one of the many old but still good 18s in someones back yard.

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H18 '86 "Knotty Passion"
H18 '85 Signature Series
H20 '96 "20/20 Vision
Fleet 259 Central Coast California

The red glue inside the hull at the front cross bar is cracked and has a chunk missing out of it.

If I just scrapped the hulls i'd have nothing to sail, and 18's arent excatly easy to come by at a fair price, i've been looking. And if those hulls in the factory are a fair price then i'll buy them, because theyre still there, which means "hardcore" guys have passed on them.

Not a big deal. As long as the skins of the hull are not cracked and the deck and hull are fully bonded, you're fine. I have a red glue boat (1985) and there is a big blob of glue by the front crossbar which is cracked. My guess is the stuff was fairly brittle compared to the more recent glue which is used.

Just do the normal reinforcements and sail it.

sm

+1

The Red line hulls are good to go. All that extra red glue you should grind off anyway and reinforce as shown on multiple posts within this site. If you were close to me I would buy those hulls from you as you have something desirable.

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H18 '86 "Knotty Passion"
H18 '85 Signature Series
H20 '96 "20/20 Vision
Fleet 259 Central Coast California

Thanks for the encouragement!! I'll perform the reinforcements and sail the balls off it. The previous owner hit something with the port bow, fixed and painted it, it doesnt even close to match the original paint, maybe a full repaint is in store.

Nooooooooo!

How much of the area was painted? Paint bad...........new gel coat good.

If you were thinking about spending big bucks on new hulls, a little money to repair the old ones correctly would get you a long way. Do you have a local glass shop near you? Maybe you can do the prep work and take the boat to them to spray. Not as expensive as you would think.

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H18 '86 "Knotty Passion"
H18 '85 Signature Series
H20 '96 "20/20 Vision
Fleet 259 Central Coast California

Don't paint the boat. I wouldn't even consider re-gelcoating it unless you were unsatisfied after already trying to restore the existing gelcoat by wet sanding and polishing. Its amazing what you can achieve with a little elbow grease, a power buffer, and some quality 3M products.

If the bow looks like crap, take it to a fiberglass shop and have them re-shoot the bow with gelcoat to make it match, but don't do the whole boat unless absolutely necessary and definitely don't paint it.

sm

No no i wasnt going to "paint it" paint it with krylon... I'd use a topside paint from interlux... I havent really done much research on the paint/gelcoat aspect i'm still researching the glass work aspect pulling the hulls off tomorrow and bringing them inside to warm up/dry out. It also has boot stripes and graphics on it soo... We'll see how the oem gelcoat comes out after everything.