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Hi Matt,
I have owned a Hobie Getaway for the last 10 years. I bought it second hand the boat was manufactured in 2001. When I bought it there were some cracks in the right hull around the front cross member. I have sailed it for around 10 years like this with no real problem. Although asthetically it does not look very good. Every year I clean the crack and apply fresh mastic to keep it water tight.
I would like to tidy this up and do a propoer repair job. I was in contact with Hobie UK who I understand was in contact with Hobie USA. Here is a copy of the response sent back to me.
"The first thing to do will be to drill a hole at the end to stop the spreading. You can’t really weld the cross linked polyethylene that the Getaway is made of so the best repair is simply filling the void, and then installing a plate over the crack. You can fill it with silicone sealant just to prevent leaking, and then a plate or straps screwed down over the crack will help keep it from opening up much more.
Most cracks like this spread about that far and then stop and don’t leak either because the inside foam layer isn’t cracked. Hopefully this helps some!"
I have put together the following methodology for the repair based on this information.
Drill 6mm hole beyond the end of the crack.
Prepare a stainless steel plate 0.5mm thick to extend 100mm beyond each side of the crack. The plate to be as wide as the length of the crack (0.5mm choosen to be able to neatly follow the contours of the hull)
Seal the crack with Sikaflex - 11FC
Apply sikaflex - 11 FC to the back of the plate
Fix the plate in place with 4 rows (2 each side of the crack) of dia 4mm pop rivets spacing between the rivets of 25mm. Spacing between the rows 50mm.
Would you have any comments or recommendations to this methodology? Would it be better to use Stainless self tapping screws rather than rivets? If so what size and length?
Thanks for any comments/suggestions.
Best Regards
John
(Photos available)
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