Has anyone had their Hobie hulls proffesionally restored?

I wanted to take my H18 hulls to a boat yard and have them proffesionally repair side soft spots (by cutiing access holes in deck and aplying fiberglas inside the hulls????) and also repainting the hulls...
Is this worth doing on a 1981 H18?
Have you guys done this? any idea of cost?

I had the bottoms on my 16 recoated, some major scratches and someone had made an ugly repair on my boat before I owned it that I had fixed. I think I spent about $350. For me it was worth it I just didn't want to screw with it though.

I had my hulls redone this winter on my 84' H16 and it cost me an arm and a leg. They were completely sanded down and repainted. I had no body work done in terms of a delam or cracks, ect. Just a few chips repaired. I also had hull protectant put on the bottom for beaching. It looks like a new boat and if it wasn't for the fact that I don't have a comp tip and some older hardware you might not be able to tell its 23 years old. Total cost was $1000, nearly the same price I paid for the boat. It was worth it to me as the boat has a lot of sentimental value in it. I proposed to my wife on it. I'll probably never sell it so the cost didn't bother me. However that being said, for about another grand, above and beyond what I paid for the boat and the paint job you could probably find some pretty nice used boats that need no work at all. I'll try to take some pics this week to show you guys what a vast improvement it made.

Two years ago, I bought a 1988 H18 in good condition. However, as I want to mount wings, (that's another story for another time,) and as I knew that the inside of the hull/deck joint needed reinforcing, I went calling around for quotes. The work was to sand down the hull/deck joint on the inside of the hulls, about 18" to the front and 18" to the rear of the front cross bar, and the same of the rear cross bar. Then lay a 4" wide strip of fibreglass about 36 " long over each joint. Go figure, that is 8 strips, including cutting a 4" hole at the rear of the hulls (to gain access to the rear hulls,) and mounting anchors at the rear cross bars, and also installing small sized inspection ports.

This process helps protect the pressures on the sidewall of the hulls, stiffens the hulls, and generally overcomes a production problem for the 1984 - 1988 models. There are other threads on this issue. It happened, and its a long time ago, and I am going to deal with it, not complain.

A well known and reputable shop in Toronto quoted me CAD$1,800, which is about what I paid for the boat. Theirs was a fair price. It is an awful job to do, and at today's labour rates, working with materials that are environmentally problematic, I have no reason to question their quote.

At the end of the day, I decided to do the job myself, so sometime in the next two or three years, I'll post the results here.

And some people wonder why Hobie charges what they do - it is expensive to build good boats of this quality. For me, I'd rather have the quality.

You can spend all the money you want, but ask yourself, does it make the boat safer? I wish you well.

_________________
2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

And get full access to the inside of the hulls and work on them?
Or do holes need to be cut into the deck and then repaired...
The sides of my h18 hulls are pretty soft at some spots...dagger wells could have a check up...new drain plug housing and also can this
Hobie Cat Die Cast Gudgeon Set be installed on a 18? Is it a good upgrade??

And also a new paint job...

I would be willing to pay maybe up to 1500- 2000$ if I got a new looking and solid pair of 18 hulls...

I have my boat in the water tied to a buoy 24/7 - 5 months a year and if I have not used in about a week it will have about 3 fingers deep of water in each hull...is this normal?

Buying a new boat is not a option as im in Spain and dont have acces to all the 18´s for sale in the USA!

There are many threads on the Forum why NOT to leave a Hobie moored in the water. The main one is that your hulls will delaminate within one season.

There are a number of threads about how to moor a Hobie 'dry' on a wooden platform covered with strips of carpet.

The die cast one piece gudgeons are a design that came out of Hobie Europe more than ten years ago, and have been standard equipment on all H16's and Tigers for more than five years. They help eliminate rudder 'slop' by allowing the rudder pins to be fully supported, which means the pins remain 'tight' and do not 'bow'. They are definitely a good improvement, although retro mounting needs a certain amount of technical expertise. (filing off of part of the lower casting so it does not interfere with the lower rudder casting etc.)

This summer, I need to buy a case of beer, which will be used as a bribe for assistance from some fellow Hobie sailors who will help me mount a set on my 1988 H18. Maybe I'll just buy the beer!

_________________
2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

Another reason for not leaving your boat in the water 24/7 for long periods of time, is to deter the onset of osmosis blisters, also known as hydrolysis, gelcoat blistering and boat pox. Just as wood rots and metal corrodes, the process of deteriorating polyesters in the hulls is the chemical process called osmosis. The discovery of just one blister indicates that at least the outer 1-2 laminate layers of the entire underwater hull surface has been affected, reducing its structural strength by as much as 30%. Specialists can repair this phenomenon which is prevalent on most 20+ yr old boats. But aside from the cost, the repairs take away from sailing time! I whole heartedly agree with John above, take it out of the water whenever possible.