Roll on bed liner for bottom of hulls

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience of putting a paint liner on the bottom of your hulls to stop the rub from the beach. Opinions?

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Hayden 1988 national H16

Heavy and subject to peeling.

Use beach wheels.

If it never touches a beach, is it still a beachcat?

I cringe when my boat touches anything other than the water, wheels, stern chock's, or trailer.

I do too and it hasn't been on the beach yet with me but its going to be this summer. Usually at the lakes i go to i pull it over to grass or sand to rig the boat. Im just worried the lineX would look weird even in white.

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Hayden 1988 national H16

That bed-liner is going to rob your boat of performance and detract from the classic Hobie look. Go with beach wheels. If you wear the gelcoat down, spend a little time in the offseason to spray a little gel back on. Surf City Catamarans has some videos that make spraying gel look easy. I'll probably flip my 20 over in the next few weeks and give it a go. Never done it before, but it doesn't look too hard. If I can, you could too. Don't put put bed liner on your boat.

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

Matt: I agree that beach wheels are the way to go. However, how do you teach club members that have been dragging our H16's up on the beach for 20 years to stop the boat before it hits the sand, go get the wheels, and wheel the cat up on the beach? Do I just buy a set of wheels and "lay down the law?"

Any advice to help people see the light of using wheels instead of dragging and brute force would be welcome!

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-Roland
Sailing vintage Hobie Cats in West Africa.

PS: If you really want to avoid using beach wheels and reinforce the bottom of your cat, check out this long-running keel protector thread.

I'm still on the fence, because I can't seem to be able to talk reason into the people at my club (i.e. persuade them to use beach wheels).

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-Roland
Sailing vintage Hobie Cats in West Africa.

I don't use beach wheels, but I have ladders with ABS pipe rungs that I slide it on. I'm on a rocky beach, beach wheels would not roll. Plus I keep the boat 20 feet from the lake, it was cheaper to build ladders and easier to use than beach wheels. Not that beach wheels are harder to use, but in my situation, it's easier to glide it on those ladders.

As far as spray on stuff, I would not do it. Heavy and probably hard to get smooth.

My hulls are due for bottom job, I'm going to do the standard fiberglass repair job as per this old Hobie article from a few years back. Gelcoat is too mush work for my liking, I'm just going to paint the hulls. They have been painted before so to do gel coat again, I'd have to strip them and I don't feel like doing that.

As far as convincing your crowd to change their old habits, that might be hard. Maybe if you film the entire repair process and the first one to drag a boat will be forced to watch the video in its entirety including watching the paint dry.

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Marc...
1978 Hobie 16 Keoke, sail# 36 84

Africat,

About your advice, it's like explaining it to people who have never used a cell phone or sunglasses. But once they have, you just can't leave the house without them. Once you have it, inflatable beach wheels are invaluable. Can you take a collection and split it? The look in long time beach sailors eye's, after using mine, are priceless. It's hitting the easy button.

That's not a bad idea, 56k. Kind of like the suggestion of rolling out carpet for your catamaran. Do you leave the ladders out? Or do you put them down before sailing, and take them up once you're done? Come to think of it, maybe just laying out a tarp at the beach might do the trick too.



That would definitely be tough love! But given how tough it is to get anybody to "volunteer" their time for bottom repairs, a drastic measure may be called for.

PS: I hope you're not actually on 56k dial-up anymore these days!

PS2: I just dug out a set of sails that matches yours at our club. We ripped a jib, and needed something to stand in. These brown and orange hues are so 70s retro that they are awesome! Much more retro than any other early Hobie sail patterns.

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-Roland
Sailing vintage Hobie Cats in West Africa.

No, I have had high speed for about 10 years, but I picked that username out of frustration for my ISP because they were slow rolling it out.

I made my ladders in 4 feet lengths, I have 6 sections. I just move them in front, slide, move back. I'm not going far, so only a few moves. I'm actually going to built a fixed one on shore with a hand winch and cradles for the permanent docking location. I'll keep my portable sections to transition between the beach and cradle.

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Marc...
1978 Hobie 16 Keoke, sail# 36 84

That's actually an excellent suggestion, NC Native! I'm headed to the States at the end of the month, and could pick up a nice set of beach wheels. It's too late for an up-front collection. But I could set up an after-the-fact collection box.

* Anybody who thinks they're better than our current wheels (a heavy steel pipe with scooter wheels, brake rotors and all)? Make a donation!
* Anybody who thinks the fancy wheels will save a ton of wear on our boats? Make a donation!
* Anybody who thinks the wheels will avoid a ton of repair work on our hulls? Make a donation!

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-Roland
Sailing vintage Hobie Cats in West Africa.

Yeah. I was not a fan at first, but they grew on me and now I don't want to get rid of them. Just brought in the jib to a sail loft to get fixed.

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Marc...
1978 Hobie 16 Keoke, sail# 36 84

I once saw something similar to that once. It was made out of a pipe and a 55 gallon drum or something. I really don't remember it. But what I do remember was thinking, jiminey crickets! That thing weighs more than the boat! Why don't you just carry the boat down the beach?! I don't think it even rolled that good.

In my opinion, I'm very much not an expert on the subject, by the time spent creating, using it half-arsed, and money spent on what your trying to jury rig, what don't you just get the right tool for the job. But I'm just speaking of moving it across deep, soft sand. If it's grass; one hand moving the boat, the other hand holding the coffee cup. Serious as lightning. It's worth saving your pocket change up for one.

Check this out. http://www.beachcartsusa.com/buywheelsframe.htm

Have a great trip coming here!

No doubt that decent beach wheels are worth the cost! But I'm dealing with a broke sailing club that's fighting to stay alive. Being the democratically elected president doesn't give me the power to fix our finances, unfortunately. And here in Africa, tinkering and scrapping things together is the standard. You wouldn't believe what people build out of garbage parts and stuff from the junkyard!

It's not just our heavy beach wheels, either. We just bought a used RIB from a nearby French military base at an incredible price. But the "dolly" that came with it? It's made of heave steel I-beams and weighs twice as much as the Zodiac. Until we let the air out of the tires, it took 10 people to wheel the RIB over the beach down to the water. I managed to make some improvements so that the rigid hull would sit safely on the cart. Now we can wheel with 4-6 people. But my idea to build a nice aluminum cart with six Wheeleez wheels is dead in the water unless I'm willing to pay for materials and build it myself.

In any case, for the beach wheels, I'm ready to pay up! Will be driving down to Backyard Boats while I'm in DC to pick up a set. I don't care what it costs me. I'm just tired of the Hobie-abuse and worn hulls!

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-Roland
Sailing vintage Hobie Cats in West Africa.