Crack

Hello

I need advice on what to do with a crack that has emerged in the front of my H16. It is now visible where the bow tang, that holds the bridle, is situated.





It has obviously been fixed by previous owners, you can clearly se it on the surface.

Is there any information or drawing that shows how Hobie build this? What does it look like under the plastic surface? Is the bolt just fixed in the plastic surrounding it, or is there some sort of metal socket or metal collar that encircles the bolt inside?

And I would gladly accept suggestions on how to deal with this crack.

Regards

Jesper

I love Marinetex!

1) Grind all of that junk off.

2) V out the crack at a very shallow angle.

3) Inspect to make sure there isn't more damage, like splitting hull/deck seam.

4) Glass with Fglass/polyester.

5) Gelcoat.

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To add to Jeremy's response - make sure to get all the broken bits out before glassing. The problem is much bigger than that crack, guaranteed.

You can lay in strips of glass underneath the deck lip (do it with the boat upside down) to reinforce the area. Use a Forstner drill bit to drill a recess for the tang bolt nut.

What matt said. "chase the white fibers" as my glass guru used to say.

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Thank´s a lot for good advice!
Jesper

I usually agree with Matt, but don't recess the nut. You will need the strength of the full thickness repair. Besides, the bow screw is not stock anyway, replace it with a proper length screw to take advantage of your thick, solid repair. When Matt says to flip the boat and glass from the bottom side, I would add, remove all gelcoat (grind/sand) and don't just repair the bow, take the repair back 6-8" from the bow, the full radius of the lip. This is the second highest stress area on the boat (next to the shrould anchor), so it needs to be done right.

Well, I usually agree with Mike , but I've actually done this repair a few times. I changed the bridle attachment points on my 14 to be like the 16 (bolts were repeatedly pulling out of the deck) - a very similar process to build up the bows to take the stress.

His advice about carrying the strips back is a detail I left out. You should also stagger the ends (1" shorter each layer) to taper out the repair and eliminate a structural hard spot.

The reason to recess the nut is to eliminate the sharp edges in the front. That part of the boat is frequently handled in loading/unloading/ maneuvering on the beach. The recess doesn't weaken it significantly as long as everything else is solid.