Hobie Cat Forums

Take a look at a post I did May 30 of last year. Almost exactly the same kind of repair.

Hope this helps.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=43039

Well I'm going to come clean. I found a guy on Craigslist who does fiberglass work on the side who was willing to do it for about just over what the cost of materials would cost me. I asked him a bunch of question, made sure he used polyester and not epoxy, asked him if he had done boats before, etc etc. He seemed to know what he was doing, I figured at least he had to know more than someone like me who had never worked with fiberglass before in his life.

Well it turned out okay...honestly I'm a bit disappointed. I was in and out of my house while he was doing the job and I came out at one point and noticed that he had made the hole as big as I had originally tapered the existing gelcoat and fiberglass away from the orginal hole. He also used fiberglass mat, not the cloth(not sure if this matters), and he rolled gelcoat on, didn't spray it. It looks alright, feels and sounds good if I tap on the repair, but he didn't seem to have hardly any taper of the existing fiberglass(maybe 1/2 inch at the most), so I'm really worried about how good of a bond was made. The bad part is, if I ever redo it, it's going to be a hole on the outer skin that is 2 inches by 4 inches, so I'd assume I'd have to sand and taper back the fiberglass and gel cost quite a bit more.

After seeing him work, I'm confident I could have done just as good a job myself. Lesson learned, follow the advice of all you guys on the forum. Also, you get what you pay for, he charged 1/3rd of the price of shops in my area. Now I have to decide if I should just sail it as is or redo it myself, sigh....

You should be able to wetsand it to smooth it up some.

WOW shocking. That LITTLE scratch through just the outer layer of the hull sandwich wasn't a problem but now!?!?! geeze really?

I had one of my 16's slide down the rack and nose into another broad side during a severe storm... punched a hole in the side about 1 inch triangle. I filled it with epoxy 2 part marine filler. (water proof you can even apply it below the. water line).
A Putty knife and about 3 minutes and it's good as new. Looks great, worked great. Little sanding and a shot of white paint.

I think you're making a mole hill into a mountain.
YIKES.

He had water intrusion and fixed it properly. You fixed yours right away, so the foam layer wasn't compromised, but your fix may come back to haunt you.

Trust me, a big part of me wishes I would have just put marine tex over it and called it good. But I've read so much about epoxy being the inferior way to go with repairs like this that I didn't want to use it, especially with knowing that hobie 16s are prone to soft spots. Time will tell if the repair lasts.

One of my boats has large softspots, (it's my parts boat now, but people still sail it). I have the stuff here to fix it, but never have taken the time. I figure - why bother when I picked up one of my boats with solid hulls complete and ready to sail for 280.00. (oh I had to add some old battens) the guy wanted it out of his brothers driveway... and when I said I'd pass on his 750.00 price and started to walk he said what would you pay. I thought and said 280 would be my top offer. We threw it on my trailer and it's been a great boat.

If a hull goes bad, pick up a cheap used boat and swap a hull. I can't rationalize all that work with sanding and glass layering. I patched a hole that way in the bottom of one of my jetski's... (I hit a rock in the river) but that's a different scenerio.

I am in the process of getting an 88 ready that I bought last fall. Went home at lunch and was just piddling. There was one spot on the inside of the hull, guessing from getting put up on the trailer. After seeing this I got to looking at it. Broke out the Air Grinder and went to town, then the DA Sander to feather out. I picked up at Home Depot a Gelcoat Repair Kit used to repair Tubs. already have Glass Sheets for the patch. I have West Systems and also US Composite Epoxy systems. I am comfortable using that since I have used it to repair jetski's in the past. Not so much on using Polyester (Wont work on SMC that PWC's use). But will be picking that up also.

Same basic repair as this!!!!!!!! Thanks for the info!

marine tex pack it in five minutes later put it in the water marine tex will last longer than you and the boat
Former Hobie Admiral Gary

Definitely true that the marine tex will outlast the boat since the marine tex is basically locking in the moisture that has migrated into the foam core -you would be helping to ensure that the hull sees an early demise....

The virtues and drawbacks of using marine tex on a Hobie hull have been debated numerous times on this forum, but I think most would agree that simply smearing putty into or even doing any type of repair on a gouge that's absorbed mositure over a period of time is not the proper way to fix this damage. The saturated core needs to be dried out or replaced before doing any other work.

Whether or not you want to risk repairing the hull by simply smearing in some putty or you want to do a properly reinforced repair is another issue.

sm

on mine, I do not believe the core is saturated, The gelcoat was chipped, the fibreglass was not damaged, heck, I did more damage grinding and sanding!!!!! But, I am not a huge Marine Tex fan, I prefer to use Glass and Resin. I know how to get the area saturated and lay cloth over and finish out. Never fooled with Gelcoat before, but that just cosmetic.

Coralreefer, I have a simar sized hole in the hull of my 2001 Hobie.. There was a soft little spot about the size of a nickel and last night I popped it out with a knife and it looks like the previous owner filled it with silicon then painted over.. I went to two west marine shops in tha last week and one sold me poly resin repair kit with cloth and the other said I didn't need all that work and sold me West Marine Rx Epoxy 2 part putty.. I would post a pic but cannot seem to figure out how to post one on this forum.. I guess my question is can I just clean it out and pour in some poly resin mixed with chopped fiberglass fibers? Everyone on here said no to the putty so I'm not sure why the guy would have me buy it.. Thank you

I patched a small gouge on my hull with Marine Tex The Mighty Repair It has held for about 25 years looks good for another 25
Former Hobie Admiral Gary