Hobie Cat Forums

Disclaimer - NOT MY BOAT!! This is a random pic off the internet

If you can see the red lines I have added, that indicates the location of the soft spots.

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ResourceRider
ALSA
St. Louis, MO

Certainly soft spots are never a good thing, but the one behind the rear crossbar is probably not too big of a deal. That's a fairly low stress area of the hull.
The one in front of the front crossbar is definitely a concern as that is the most highly loaded part of the hull. The good news is that you should have access through the port hole opening to inspect the inner skin for damage and repair as necessary. Hopefully some resin injection is all that's needed.

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OK-dumb question - When I open the port hole there is an existing "basket" or "inner compartment". This compartment prohibits me from having access to the under part of the hull deck.

Do people remove this compartment? I want to say I have read some threads about this. What are the pros and cons? I would hate to ruin a perfectly good storage space, when storage space is minimal on a H18.

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ResourceRider
ALSA
St. Louis, MO

Is it a bag that hangs inside the hatch? something along the lines of this:


If so, most of them just have a plastic ring that sits on a lip molded into the plastic hatch. You should be able to just lift/pry it out.

Steve

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1990 Hobie 18SX #2077

no...It is definitely built into the boat. When I go out to my boat this weekend, I’ll take a pic.

On another note..I could cut it out and use the bag referenced above.

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ResourceRider
ALSA
St. Louis, MO

Hmm interesting... Never heard of that as a factory option!

Definitely send pics before any cutting. Installing something like that after the hull and top have been assembled seems like it would be a challenge

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Jeff R
'88 H18 "Jolly Mon"
Sail Michigan's Great Lakes in 2013
cramsailing.com

Yes, take some pics of the compartment. I've seen quite a few 18s over the years and never seen or heard of any with a compartment in the hatch, so I doubt it is factory, but I guess anything's possible.

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[quote="srm"]take some pics of the compartment. I've seen quite a few 18s over the years and never seen or heard of any with a compartment in the hatch [/quote

OK - Well I took some pictures with my iphone, and well, they are hard to make out what your looking at. The flash sucks and it's awkward taking pictures inside a hole. see below.

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ResourceRider
ALSA
St. Louis, MO

Interesting. I've never heard of a compartment/box inside the hull on an 18. I would have figured it would be something that was added by a previous owner, but based on the (difficult to see) pictures, it looks like the walls wouldn't have fit through the 6" port hole opening. So that leads me to believe it must have been installed prior to putting the deck on the boat - i.e. at the Hobie factory. That looks like it would be real handy for keeping stuff from getting lost up in the bow.

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