Soft spots

Hi, I have a 70' Hobie 14 that I am trying to restore and was wondering hown to fix soft spots. I have a few on the right pontoon and was wondering how to fix without cutting it open. Thanks in advance:)

Here is your starting point (FAQ Forum): http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1156

This is a hugely discussed topic, so if you do a search, you will find tons of info on this subject.

The general repair process for small areas is to drill a series of holes through the outer skin and into the foam core, but not through the inside skin (use a depth gauge on your drill). Then use a syringe filled with epoxy to inject resin into the soft area. Once the resin hardens, the hull should be solid.

For larger areas, or areas that are saturated with water, you will likely need to cut out the existing core and re-build the laminate. For older boats if there are large areas of delamination, it generally isn't worth attempting to repair and the boat should probably just be parted out and the hulls scrapped. The problem is that once delam starts, if you don't repair it soon enough, the entire hull will go soft and eventually fail. Hobie 14s and 16s generally develop soft spots just in front of the forward pylons. This is a structurally critical area of the hull and if you sail the boat in this condition, it is very possible that the entire bow will snap off.

sm

The biggest difficulty is not drilling all the way through the deck. The H17 deck I worked on was so terribly thin that you only had to drill a couple or three millimeters deep to get to where you need to be. Any more and you've gone through all the way.

Mainly the whole top of the right pontoon is sift and crackles when pressure is applied to it. My aunt gave the boat to me and I want to make it a project, just wondering if it is worth fixing.

Soft (typo)

The entire top of the hull is soft = the hull is shot. Sorry to tell you that, but you will likely put way more time, effort, and money into the boat trying to repair it than you will get sailing out of it.

Regarding drilling too deep, there are a couple things you can do to prevent this. There are commercially available drill stops you can buy for a couple bucks that install on your drill bit and will not allow it to go deeper than the depth you set. You can put a piece of masking tape on the drill at the depth you want to hit. Just drill to the tape (note that you still need to be careful since the tape won't stop the drill from going too deep). Or carefully drill ONLY through the skin. Then remove the drill bit from the drill and drill through the core by spinning the drill bit using your fingers.

sm

Sorry to hear that your hull might be shot.

I am building a small boat and am looking for Hobie 14 rig and parts to outfit the new boat.

Depending on where you are located I might be interested in purchasing your Hobie.

Thanks,

Mac