Hello all, long time first time and all that. Nice to meet you all!
Firstly, I'd like to thank all the sailors, kayakers, and sailor/kayakers here on this lovely forum for their incredible (often contradictory) advice
Without it, I would have never gotten through my first Hobie Outback restoration, and it certainly played a part in me being infected with "The Hobie Way of Life," to the point that I now seem to own two old catamarans haha. Introductions out of the way, here comes the big ask.
Two questions.
After much, much reading, soul searching, and sanity checks... I still do not know how a soft spot would feel. My decks are hard as a rock, bow to stern, put when I press equally hard on the sides of the hull, there is the tiniest bit (less than 1mm) of movement or flex over a wide area. Is that normal and I'm just new boat over worrying? Or is that tiny flex indicative of bad news?
Then there is this.
A gouge. I've read the This Old Hobie article on fixing gouges, but it seems daunting to a total neophyte like myself. Does this look like something I can small patch (like in the article), or am I gonna being cutting out fist sized chunks of hull?
(Please ignore the previous owners questionable attempt at mooring paint, it's got a date with some wet sanding)
Thanks all!
P.S. This started out as an introductory post quickly turned into a "please help me" instead, so if the mods think it belongs elsewhere, I'll happily delete.