Need repair help

My wife has a 2006 Hobie Mirage sport. It has a fingernail shaped flap that leaks substantial amounts of water at the top of the mirage drive well. I realize I am really late to the party on the hull defect thing. I am also 200 miles from the nearest Hobie dealer. I had to pay substantial shipping charges to get this one delivered by a third party.

My question is on repair. Clearly this area is weak and needs reinforcing. I am also considering taking an 1/8 of an inch of the top of the mirage drive to allow for more clearance. Looking through the forum there seems to be two approaches, the welding of HDPE with some reinforcement (this area is extremely tight and hard to work on) or 8010 epoxy. We are looking at new kayaks but I would really like to save this one if I could. Is there a preferred repair method for this type of damage. Right now I have a flap that when pushed could pass a 3/8" bolt.

It's easier to give advice if we could see what you're seeing -- a picture would be very helpful. Repair options depend on accessibility and whether the flap is due to some stress or accident (how durable does the repair have to be). You might be able to plug it with silicone calking or temporarily cover it with packing tape so the boat is usable. There is also a way to "flame" the area to make it more receptive to other epoxies (you have to be very careful to heat only the surface).

If you don't know how to host a picture, you can check the FAQ section for instructions or provide a link.

Since the boat is 500 miles away I cannot get actual photos but I found some pictures on the internet that I can use to show the area and the size of the problem. It is in a high stress area as the end of the mirage drive presses against it constantly ( likely shouldn't but it does) I will try to attach two images.

Not sure if images are working, will try posting links to the images:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7NYrq39Rcu0VmVkLWZHcGVoSUk
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7NYrq39Rcu0aURJcnBjWFhCLWs

Your images didn't link correctly. Partly because the first "[img]" tag was malformed (the url needs to be between the "[img]" tags), but also because google drive probably isn't the best approach for hosting pictures. I would recommend a site like imgur.

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The images don't work but the links to the images appear to work so hopefully that will be sufficient to show the location and size of the problem so that someone can recommend the appropriate repair procedure. As you can see the area is only 1/2 wide with high sides so adding reinforcement there will be challenging.

This is a very tricky area. I have had some success with the Scotchweld DP 8010 and a this "patch" sized to fit in the notch. Here was the problem and solution:



The patch (also made of HDPE) should be thin enough so that the Drive is able to rock forward and back a very small amount (at least 1/8") (but not side to side) when installed. This is very important. If necessary you can remove material from the front Mirage Drive tab to accomplish this.

For this job I would only consider the DP 8010 -- it bonds tenaciously, had reasonable flexibility and excellent strength. Unfortunately it's not particularly cheap or easy to work with. Fortunately though this is an easy access area.

There is another approach you could use (this would be my second choice). Normally the Drive rocks forward while in use, placing all its force on this front tab. You could possibility transfer this force to the rear bottom of the drivewell. This is rather unkoshure and does not have the strength that the front notch has, but should work. In this case you have to cut off the front Drive tab. If you would ever want to restore your Drive in the future you would have to replace the spine.

In this pic the front and rear tabs have been cut off.



Looking at the installed Drive from underneath, you can see that it now making contact at the rear of the drivewell.



The front drivewell notch is now completely clear and non-stressed.



With this method, you can now seal the failed front notch because it is no longer a stress point. My first choice would be to flame it (about 1 second) to oxidize the surface and seal with G-Flex (available at marine hardware stores). A much easier alternative is to just plug it with regular silicone bed and bath calk.

Unless your wife is an Olympic cyclist, this arrangement should last several years. You'll find it to be economical and expeditious. I'm not necessarily recommending it for a long term fix and Hobie certainly would not recommend it, so do it at your own risk.

Thanks, I had pretty much determined that I needed to shorten the tabs, never thought about cutting it off all together. I'm not sure it is clear in the photo but the hole/flap is in the back vertical wall of the notch, not the bottom horizontal wall so the tab can still rest on it, however it cant apply pressure forward. I like the 8010 solution better I tried the plastic pail internet fix but it wouldn't stand the forward pressure of the drive. The cost of repair is peanuts compared to a new boat but we are looking at a new kayak with me trying to convince my wife to get a Adventure Island