Large Soft Spot on my $200 Hobie 16 Special - Salvageable?

I have been reading this forum for years after I sold my Hobie 16 I bought in high school and always promised myself I would buy another one. A trailered 16 came up on CL for $200 and I couldn't resist; although the sails are in excellent shape and have always been stored inside, the hulls are a different story.

Please keep in mind, this boat will be used for recreation only. I do not plan on racing it, I live in Dallas right next to a sail-only lake and get down to the coast every year.

The hulls have two issues. The tops are brittle and I have a HUGE soft spot on the port pontoon. The tops are brittle enough that I can push the glass in and the foam underneath audibly cracks. The glass is solid and I assume the hulls are water tight, but I have not pressure tested them yet.

The large issue is shown in the photo below. The soft spot is roughly 8" tall and 3 feet long. The glass had completely delaminated from the inner foam on this section, the rest of the boat is solid.

Here is my current plan of action:
1. Disassemble the boat to take the weight off the pontoons. I also need to go through the rigging with a fine-tooth comb to make sure it is safe.
2. Install a 4" view-port on each hull under the tramp so I can see what is going on inside the hulls (and install step 4)
3. Repair the soft spot with GitRot as described exhaustively in the forums
4. (I have a feeling this may be controversial) Completely fill the front half of the pontoons, flip the pontoons upside down and fill the tops of the stern pontoons with 2LB 2 part marine foam. I know that this foam is not impermeable, but as the boat will be trailered and covered between uses, I feel comfortable that I will be able to adequately air out the hulls. I also plan temporarily installing a long piece of flexible tubing from the drain holes to an open area of the hull as to ensure the foam does not block the drain plugs.
5. Sand and refinish pontoons, reassemble and sail into the sunset

I want to fill the tops of the pontoons with foam because as careful as I may be about not stepping on the tops, the many people I will be taking sailing will not be able to resist stepping and further cracking the tops. Because I will not be racing the boat, I am ok with adding some weight for longevity.

Any steps yall would recommend differently? I am starting with a $200 boat so I am not expecting a world cup crasher at the end of the day, just something I can take out and enjoy on the weekends.

I have more photos if you would like to see a different angle and appreciate any comments or suggestions.

Unfortunately when the delam spreads down the side of the hull it indicates a severe problem...waaay more major than just a deck delam. The entire hull could be ready to dalam and you might be chasing a problem like the Golden Gate Bridge where you finish one end and have to start all over, but who knows?? Try it and see what happens.

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Sail Revolution
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ok, i'm going to be brutally honest here.

I'll start out by asking a question, do you know what you get when you try to make ice cream out of Horse Chit ?
Answer: You get Horse Chit flavored Ice Cream.

Not a problem if you LIKE Horse Chit, but speaking for myself, not something I want to spend a lot of time and effort on.

Your time DOES Have Value.
Think of it like this.
Would you spend the same amount of time and effort on a car that you couldn't safely drive out of your own neighborhood?

At least if the car breaks down you can usually walk home.
If you spend a lot of time and effort on a boat that has delaminated and it leaves you in the drink somewhere...
are you SURE you will be able to swim back to safety?

You start adding a lot of foam/weight to the boat, it isn't going to sail anything like a cat should sail, and you won't enjoy it.

Bottom line, I have nothing more to go on than your description (and that sounded pretty bad)
the picture you included ( and that looks pretty bad)
If I were you, I'd take it down to the guys at Mariner Sails right there off of 635 in Dallas and let them take a look at it and then pay attention to what they tell you ......
Keep in mind they will be gentle, they do not want to offend you or hurt your feelings, but if they say it isn't worth fixing, BELIEVE them.
It looks to me like you got a decent trailer with a sail tube and a lot of pretty decent parts all in all a bargain as the trailer alone is worth at least $200.
If the guys @ Mariner Sails tell you is is a good parts boat, keep looking for a decent boat and use the good stuff off of this boat as needed and sell the rest for other upgrades you want on a good boat.
One last thing, spend some time networking with the folks in Dallas Hobie Fleet 23. They are a great bunch of folks that will be delighted to help you in any way they can.

Stephen

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If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, maybe it is time to water your own lawn.

take it to a drive in car wash and get the green off the boat so you can really see what you working with. I cant really tell anything from the picture

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Hayden 1988 national H16

All the water in the world is not going to wash off that big-ass delam wrinkle on the port hull.

That boat is dead - it just doesn't know it yet.

Thanks for the help so far- MUST5429, thanks for the honesty.

I am also involved in the 24 Hours of LeMons, basically a 24 hour car race in a car purchased and fixed up for less than $500...so, haha, yes, I have spent a great deal of time on cars i can't drive safely anywhere!

I may try a thing or two while watching for a good boat, but I think you are correct, any amount of money is not going to help this sail like new again. If I can just get it out on the water a little bit...

Good tip on mariner sails. i will haul it over there next week sometime.

Boehm, I was in a similar situation as you last fall, I bought a '78 16, paid $300.00, got it home and realized the hulls were shot, decided to part out after drilling holes in the top of hulls and shot expanding foam in them, one side turned out good, but the other had a real nice water draining angle to it, more like a mountain. So I parted it out and got $1200.00 for everything, and I still have the mast and boom AND a real good trailer yet. All is not lost, sell the good stuff.

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[color=#4000FF]1974 Hobie 16 (Keepin 4 my sons)

Welcome to Hobiedom. I say no major loss here. I'm all the time buying two boats to make one good one. Nice sail tube you have on that trailer, BTW. Now you can search for another 16 with good hulls (which doesn't have to come with a trailer!) and you'll have plenty of spare parts. 1980 or later models will probably have solid hulls, but by all means check thoroughly, now that you have experience.

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Sheet In...Max Out
www.fleet297.org
sailflatlands at gmail dot com

Here's the Fleet 23 website: http://www.hobiefleet23.com. They're a great bunch of folks. Attend some of their events even if your boat isn't ready for the water, talk to them about sailing Hobies, and you may find that they'll have some leads on underutilized Hobies that perhaps you can purchase and use all those spare parts on. I put a lot of time and money into a derelict H20 and turned it into a respectable boat, but at least I started with solid hulls. Find a pair of good hulls and go for it.

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Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28

Dude,

I bought a $200 boat not too long ago, it still isn't floating but I will get there. Mine was actually $250 so I'm jealous.

I also found three biggish soft patches all on the outside of one hull. Firstly what is easy to forget, and I might assume you're in the same situation. I bought the boat as it was very cheap and it was the only one for sale for miles around and I'm broke and don't have a tow hitch on my ( horrible, old ) car.

Therefore I have to fix what maybe a write off but. I can't afford a new hull and the rest of the boat isn't worth anything if no one wants it locally. The only real option is to fix it no matter how screwed it is.

Take the boat apart, put the hull on it's side. Find the middle of the soft spot and the edges. Drill a hole through the outer skin in the middle of the patch and some holes around the edge. Stick a syringe in the middle hole and just fill with resin.

As I say I haven't sailed my boat yet , but the soft bits are now hard.

I also have a really wrinkly patch near the bow that looks like your pics but feels solid. Not planning any offshores but I'm going to sail with it as is. I'm not ever sure it adds loads of weight. Surely less that filling the whole hull with foam, things would have to be very bad before I tried that.

I purchased a H-16 last summer and my starboard hull has a large delamination on the deck. I live in San Antonio and am parting out the boat. A guy on the coast is semi interested in my hulls to make an outrigger canoe, but I would rather see the port hull be used to make your boat whole again. Interested?

Take care,
Kerry