My '84 is cracking!

I decided to keep the '84 after it seemed no one wanted to buy it. Fitted my magnum wings to it and have sailed it all summer. Over Memorial weekend I got a little stupid and loaded the boat up with girls and went out riding. I had 3 girls on the upwind wing and 2 on the downwind with 2 guys on the tramp, 7 total.
I always check the boat over after a day of sailing and drain the hulls. I had installed the stainless brackets on the inside of the hulls earlier in the year just to be safe and knew there were no cracks under the lip. I now have a hairline fracture that is 5" long on the starboard hull and a 3' crack with a 1/32" void on the port hull. The port hull even leaks water out when tipped. I'm pretty bummed about this and knew I should have sold it and not sailed it.

How hard is the inside restructuring repair? It appears that a lot of grinding must be done to get a smooth transistion to work from. Can I do it or should I pay someone?

.I think putting 7 people on the boat was your biggest mistake, not the fact that you didn't sell it. The most I'll put on my boat is generally 3 people.

In any case, regarding the repair, is the crack accessible from the porthole? I had similar damage occur on one of my boats ('85). I ground out the crack on the outside of the hull and laid in as much glass as possible while still being able to install the SS reinforcement plates. To do the inside, you may have to grind away some of the glue at the deck/hull seam depending on how big of a blob is in the crack area. In my case, there wasn't a whole lot of glue there, so I actually added thickened resin to form a fillet. Doing this required removing the hull and flipping it so that the corner where the seam is was the low point. Then I poured in the resin. Once you've got a smooth transition from hull to deck, lay up the fiberglass along the hull/deck seam to re-connect the hull & deck.

On an old boat like this, the cost to pay someone else to repair (properly) is probably more than the value of the hull, or possibly even the whole boat.

sm

Having 5 girls on your hobie is never a mistake..

5 babes? if it is shot, it went down with Glory! Hobie himself would be proud of you and the boat! fiberglass can almost always be repaired. memories are forever!

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eric, sail #205

What you need is a set of brand new hulls friend, and I've got a pair for sale just waiting for a new owner.

Yea, it sounds great and all but I'm 25 years married and these were college girls. Only my nephew, on board, had a chance with any of them. It was fun though!

Al, this is my spare boat. I have a very hotrodded 18 as well and was using this boat as a party barge at the beach.

Thanks for the response SRM. I can see the area from the port and it looks like the typical cracking the redline boats are known for. I was a little surprised it was a clean crack, light shines through it. I thought the brackets prevented this? I guess I will be glassing it this winter.