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PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2017 7:49 pm 
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Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2008 12:24 am
Posts: 43
Location: Kailua, Oahu
Can anyone provide any guidance to me on repairing the photos in the links below? I am no expert at fiberglass work but I have done a few repairs. Do I need to remove all fiberglass in the entire area so it is just an open hole surrounded by intact fiberglass, then repair? Or could I just add glass and resin to fix? It doesn’t need to look nice or be light, just needs to be water tight. I can access the inside via a port hole.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8Vhe ... W9jdTJ3WEk
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8Vhe ... 0pvbUlNeTg


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PostPosted: Mon May 22, 2017 9:12 am 
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Joined: Mon May 09, 2005 10:25 am
Posts: 4176
Location: Jersey Shore
Looks like there was a severe impact at the back of the hull.

If you're not familiar with the way Hobie hulls are constructed, they a what is called a fiberglass/foam sandwich. On the sides of the hulls, there is a high density foam core which is sandwiched between layers of fiberglass on both sides. This gives the hulls high strength and low weight. The bottom of the hull is just solid fiberglass, no foam.

From the pictures, it is clear that both the outside layer of fiberglass plus the foam core have been damaged. It's possible that the inside layer of fiberglass was also damaged, but this can't be seen from the pictures.

The proper way to repair would be to remove all of the damaged material and replace. This is a pretty involved process and not really a beginner project. You would more or less need to use a router or grinder to carefully remove the fiberglass and foam and then build it back up. If the inside fiberglass skin is in tact, you can use that as a backer for your repair. If it is damaged, then you're looking at cutting a hole through the hull, glassing in a backing plate, and then rebuilding from there.

The quickie way to do the repair (and the way most people would probably go about it) would be to just grind out as much of the damaged glass as possible, fill the area with putty, and then glass over it and gelcoat. It's not really the "correct" way to fix this, but the location where you hull is damaged is not really a high-load area, so this type of fill & patch approach would probably be ok. The biggest risk would be that the hull may flex a little differently in the repaired area than the rest of the hull and you may eventually end up with stress cracks around the repair.

sm


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