Strange place for a hole

I have battling a hard to find water leak and finally discovered that it is a hole situated inside where the inner bolt for the front crossmember goes. I was thinking this is a strange place for a hole. I got to thinking and was wondering if this hole was here intentionaly to allow the hull to vent. Matt I am hoping you can either confirm or deny this. I take on a lot of water so I intend to fill the hull with thickened epoxy. Thanks for the input.

Sounds like the bolt hole passes through a void in the glue seam. It happens. You can fill it.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

It sounds like a vent hole to me. That's a pretty common place for them to be located (it should be about 1/8" Dia.).

If your boat is taking on excessive water, the vent hole is most likely not the only leak. I would suggest soap/pressure testing your hulls to find the source of the leak as filling the vent hole will not solve the problem.

Some common trouble areas are (depending on the year of your boat):
- Under the lip, particularly around shroud and X-bar anchors. This is the worst one since it requires structural repair.
- The portholes
- Daggerboard wells
- Rudder gugeons

sm

Nope, that is the only leak and it is a good one. It is a 99 model sx, I already did the soap test, that is how I found this one. I checked everywhere there was a joint or a fitting. I'm going to fill it with thickened epoxy. A friend suggested drilling a very small hole in the inpsection port to allow for venting and to just duct tape the hole when racing as venting would not be neccessary when sailing because the water will extract the heat that causes the air to expand.

Just out of curiosity, how big is the existing hole and how much water does the boat take in?

sm

Because of the location the size is an estimation only. I would say it is definatley larger than an 1/8 inch but slightly smaller than a 1/4 inch. As for the amount of water it is huge. At our last regatta the first race was six legs. By the third leg the boat was sluggish, by the last up wind leg the boat was a dog. We went in to investigate and it took almost five minutes to drain the hull. It was pretty windy so we were stuffing that hull quite a bit with the chute flying etc. I have checked every other possible place for a leak and this is the only one. Since the crossbar is off, I am going to go ahead and fill both sides. I will add a hole in each inspection port for ventalation with the smalles drill bit I can find. A piece of duct tape will serve as a seal when sailing. This second step is probably over kill since I pull the plugs when I am on the beach but just in case I forget.

I do not recall a period where we added a breather to the H18 forward saddle, but who knows. Certainly not that big. Is is actually within the bolt hole?

I would also check further once you have filled that one.

I suspect there is another to be able to take on that much water. A hole in the crossbar saddle would normally not fill a hull that quickly. Take a close look at the dagger wells. Top flanges (where the well meets the deck) have been known to have gaps in the putty. That way, as you are speeding along, water is constantly welling up into the dagger well... and leaking into the hull.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Matt, my 89 H-18 has a breather hole in the front saddle, its about 3/16 in dia. The crossbeam covers it up. I put a piece of welding filler rod into the hole and took a picture of it from inside the hull.

_________________
1989 Hobie 18 Worlds Boat, Magnum Wings & Spinnaker
1987 Hobie Holder 20 #273

dale.vanlopik"at"att"dot"net

3/16" sounds large for a factory breather hole. Perhaps added by the owner or dealer... but again. Who knows. The factory changes what it does from time to time and depending on who was in charge at the time.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

The hole is acutally inside of the hole where the bolt goes. There are no holes in the saddle itself. I too was concern about the dagger well to the point I was not confident that the soap test was getting soap on the joint so I pluged the bottom of the dagger well and filled the dagger cavity with water, no bubbles so I think no leak. Once the epoxy dries I plan to retest the whole thing again before putting the cross bar on. We sail with with a Tiger sized squaretop and push a lot of water up in that area. I too am surprised by how much water we take on but I am very sure there are no other leaks.

Thanks for the information Matt. I plan to fill the hole then & just keep the plugs open or the ports open when I'm not sailing.

_________________
1989 Hobie 18 Worlds Boat, Magnum Wings & Spinnaker
1987 Hobie Holder 20 #273

dale.vanlopik"at"att"dot"net

Well I fixed the hole and bed the crossbar in thickened epoxy. As a last minute thought I checked the starboard hull for a leak in the same area and found nothing. I think the leak must have been an unintenional void in the lay up process probably worsened by the flexing of the boat. Now I just have to get my tramp relaced and get some warmer weather so I can go sailing. Man I am jonesing for a sailing fix.

Well I thought I would update on this thread. With the boat back together we went out this past weekend in the surf with waves in the 6-7 foot range (trough to crest). After a day of hard sailing each hull produced about a cup of water. A far cry from the gallons we would get before so I am deaming this repair a sucess.