Definitive advice on DIY hull refurb

Hi Hobiers,
Here's the deal.....I bought an '81 HC16' last year. previous owner had slapped a bunch of Marine Hex on the hull bottoms where he said fiberglass had started to show after years on and off beach. He never faired the Marine Tex down so it looked really ugly and stark against the light blue original gelcoat hulls.
I'm in the process of sanding and fairing down the Marine Tex and building up where necessary. I am now approaching the next big decision:

Paint or Gelcoat.

Now from everything I've read on these super cool forums, i believe Gelcoat is the prudent solution for longevity. My problem is I lack the tools (sprayer and compressor) location (hulls under windy beach house in open air) and skills (never sprayed gelcoat in my life).

So with all that, I am now leaning towards painting with Interlux Prekote and a nice few coats of interlux Precision paint one I have them silky smooth. My Hobie is kept on the beach in lovely Jersey Shore for summer months and brought to waters edge on cat trax.
So hit me with it...am i crazy to paint?
Thanks all and roll on summer!
Phil

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'89 18SX

Sounds like gel coating isnt even an option for you? I will be painting mine since the previous owner painted it already.

Hey Kevin,
Well gelcoat poses obvious issues for me but i'll figure it out if it seems painting over gelcoat is a big mistake. My other Gelcoat issue is that i know its hard to work over Marine Tex.
Phil

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'89 18SX

I don't care what you use, but nothing will turn out looking good in that location. Dust, sand and crap will land in any finish in the open air.

If want to do it right, take the hulls to someone who can refinish them for you.

Otherwise, clean it up nice as you can and call it a day. You're wasting money refinishing a whole hull in the open air.

It's funny you say this, Matt.

According to my club's gear guy, the gelcoat on our hulls rarely lasts more than a season. My local club refinishes hulls on sawhorses at our beach launch. That's supposedly the only thing we can afford. No wonder!

I've actually been looking for a local boat builder who could redo all of our hulls. But I'm afraid it may cost more than our club can afford (we struggle to break even). Still, maybe we could do 2-3 boats per year until we're through the whole collection.

Now that I know that open-air refinishing by the beach is not a good idea, I'll have to figure out a way to transport our cats to a boatyard. As far as I know, the club doesn't own a trailer -- the Hobies have been at this beach for over a decade. Anybody carried a Hobie 14 or 16 (without mast) on top of a car's roof? Or would we better off renting a truck? (Remember, this is Africa, so traditional options are limited.)

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-Roland
Sailing vintage Hobie Cats in West Africa.

Am facing a similar challenge and am thinking about completely disassembling the 3 that I need to get sorted and transporting just the hulls on my roof racks. Other than the issues with perhaps seizing between the pylons and corner castings, what would be the drawbacks?

Cheers, PT.

Hi Roland,

I'm a little puzzled by the statement about gel
coat only lasting one year. I've got an 88 H16 and that factory gelcoat has been around for over 20 years! Are the beaches in West Africa that rocky? I've never been so I don't know, but East Africa, Tanzania and Zanzibar had some of the nicest whitest sandy beaches I'd ever seen! Maybe they are referring to a sacraficial bottom paint that monohulls use. Anyway, I've got some gelcoat work to do myself so I got that going for me!

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Blair T

I love these calm moments before the storm, it reminds me of Beethoven...


'02 Hobie Tiger USA 1152

Hey Africacat,

If I was going to put a bottom on a 16 for club use, I would probably put about 10 coats as thick as I could get it on the keel. In a sailing school scenario you want tough! And you could do a good enough job on the beach with a 3" roller. So if an industrial bottom is your goal, I would forgo the cost of renting a truck and just do it on the beach. If you are going to be refinishing the entire hull, then go through the trouble. Make it a club maintenance day and get some labor out of everyone.

I ran the maintenance dept for a sailboat program for the US Marine Corps; talk about industrial use! There's no one harder on gear than a bunch of 19 year old Marines. We had a fleet of 30 boats or so, and it was a constant battle with repairs. Finally after repairing the same thing on soooo many boats, and getting the gel to look nice, I changed tacks so that my repairs were on the industrial level. That meant additional glass patches, and a good thick coat of gel.

I would love to see some pics of where you sail! My wife was born in Uganda, and lived there off and on for the past 30 years, so we have a connection.

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Sail Revolution
Join us on our new FB Page!

That's great advice, Jeremy. Getting some labor out of everyone is exactly the challenge! Even though I'm dying to get out on a Hobie 14 uni-rig, I have yet to pitch in for the repairs that the maintenance guy has suggested before we get them back on the water! (He wants us to repair the Hobie 16 with the boring easy rig, before we move on to readying the Hobie 14s for navigation.)

With that said, are you talking about 10 coats of fiberglass? Or 10 coats of Gelcoat? Either way, I totally agree that a tough, industrial-strength repair/preventive fix is the way to go for our club environment.

The guy who's in charge of the gear is going back to France this summer. I'm tempted to volunteer for the gear position, even though I know nothing about fixing Hobie Cats. Just because I have a vested interest in getting those Hobie 14s ready to Rock 'n Roll again.



It's amazing how many African connections are out there. While my wife was born in the States, she's spent many years on the African continent -- studying, teaching, and working. And here we are again with the whole family (two of us, plus two kids).

Here are some Hobie Cat sailing pictures I posted to Facebook. Hope you enjoy them.

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-Roland
Sailing vintage Hobie Cats in West Africa.

BTW, Roland - the "unidentified catamaran" in one of FB photos is a Hobie Dragoon.

Beautiful beach, beautiful kids, smokin' hot wife

You're a lucky guy.

Matt: Thanks for the ID of the Dragoon! That sure solves one mystery. And thanks for the compliments! All too often I forget how good we have it here. Like when the power goes out the 3rd time in a (work) day and I lose my Internet connection (and VoIP call) yet again.

Gotta get out sailing more! Before the rainy season brings humidity and heat that'll kill any breeze.

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-Roland
Sailing vintage Hobie Cats in West Africa.

Depending on the bottom, enough glass to fix them and 10 hotcoats of gel. Maybe not THICK like I said before, but not thin either.
What I do: Spray a coat, put the gun in the fridge (dedicated to that purpose) walk away for 5 mins, then spray another coat, do that 10 times. Could be done as easily with rollers and shade. You get the idea.

Edit, after seeing your pics: Oh, and Roland, forget all of the advice I've ever given on gel coat. Clear some couch space, I'm bringing the family, I'll just do it for you.

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Sail Revolution
Join us on our new FB Page!

I went though major hull repairs on my 1st 16 because I didn't know what blisters were when I bought it. I painted them with a 2 part epoxy paint after sanding off ALL the gel coat and rolling on 9 layers of West System Epoxy. The hulls came out great and have held up well over the past 6 years. I used a cheep spray gun in my garage. I also used the epoxy to add an extra 1" on the bottom of each hull to wear off on the sand. It was a big job for me to do but I'm very happy with the results. My boat is a little over weight 275lbs but that's my fault, I used thickend epoxy to replace missing foam core in stead of foam and the extra on the bottom. Live and learn, I'm working on putting the experance in facebook but don't have it up yet, I have a lot of good photos. I just got photos loaded on facebook but not sure yet on how to link and don't have more time right now to find out. Robert Buxton, New Brighton, PA should get you to my page. I'm not a body man and my boat came out nice.

Cool! Now I get the idea. Will have to investigate rollers versus a spray gun. No idea whether you can get one for cheap to mail here. The other option I'll investigate -- in addition to a club day -- is hiring one or two people from the boatyard after-hours (e.g. on a weekend), to come with their tools and help get it done.



Jeremy: If you make it all the way from California to Senegal, you'll be welcomed with open arms! Hosting is no problem at all. Best connection is on South African (code share with United) via IAD (Washington Dulles) or JFK. That's what my brother-in-law did when he visited from the SF Bay Area for the holidays.

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-Roland
Sailing vintage Hobie Cats in West Africa.