foam deteriorated in hull

I have a really soft spot to repair. When you press on it it moves about 1/2". Feels like the foam has deteriorated. sailboats are like pets or pianos, all have personalities, & hate to see one waste away. I was considering to inject 2 part marine foam (I have posted this before,,) in small quantities carefully placed in this area. Has anyone tried this ? I have read where people have used "less than" "great stuff" with marginal results. I have the same idea with a much better product. I have tested Gorilla glue, nice foaming action, but the foam is not hard, where the marine foam is. Thanks guys,,

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Let me thru !

I would try the delam repair first. As you have read before, marine foam is not the best idea

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Nick

Current Boat
In the market
Previous boats owned
'74 Pearson 30
'84 H16
'82 H18 Magnum
St. Louis, MO

There are only two good ways to repair delamination...

Inject epoxy or cut it open and scrape out the bad foam and re-fill with solid glass.

I prefer the GotRot epoxy injection system:

http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=1156

http://static.hobiecat.com/2010_archive/support/images/tech/delam.jpg

The above works. I have done this many times.

Do Not:

- Use Great Stuff (wall foam not water proof and will absorb water)
- Use gorilla Glue (too thick and does not penetrate to completely repair the delamination)
- Use expanding foam... again, does not penetrate and causes the surfaces to be forced apart as it expands.

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

OK let's try this one more time. Let me preface by saying this is not a fix for boats that are to be raced. This is what I did to fix the delam problem with Hobies. Both of my hulls had soft tops which I fixed with git rot, worked fine until somebody decided to sit on the hull. Needless to say the git rot cracked and I was right back to where I started. I sail strictly in the ocean and my boat takes a beating. This fix has lasted for the past 3 years and is still good today. I used marine polyurathane closed cell foam, 4 lb. Comes in gallons. I cut access plates in front of the foward pylons, tilted the boat at a 45, mixed a gallon of the resin and a gallon of the hardener and poured thru the access hole. Foam fill from the tip back to the pylon pressing the layers of glass and foam snugly together. Now my tops are rock hard, you can jump on them and they will not budge, no deformaty to the hull shape and it added 16 lbs to each hull. You can probably use 2 lb foam but no need to go to 6 or 8 lb foam, to hard. The foam does not absorb water. Like I said I did this 3 years ago and the tops are still rock hard with no water intrusion. You cannot pour foam between the layers of glass, it will blow the layers apart.

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Coral Reefer
H-16
Flagler Beach, Fl

I am dealing with the same thing, keep us posted what you do

Coral Reefer,et al

With 2 soft spots on my '80 H16 hulls that were speading badly, I needed more than delam repair and hired local fiberglas guy to fill w/ foam and install ports. (Solid stepping spot now!)

Since he installed "dams" to stop the foam from filling "stern-to-stem" I may have created a bigger problem... whereby I may be inviting trapped lake water and condensation to collect in the forward part of my hulls w/o being able to drain!? Am i overreacting..or should i figure a way to roto rooter up from drain plugs thru bottom of foam so forward section of hulls will drain?

Thanks for any sage advice/experience.
Tim
80 H16
So Oregon

Are they filled from the bow back solid to the pylons? If so there will be no condensation or water intrusion. When finished sailing just make sure to drain the hulls and leave the boat parked with the tips up and plugs out.

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Coral Reefer
H-16
Flagler Beach, Fl

Sorry i was'nt clear...
No..the temporary cardboard dam (inside hull) kept the foam from reaching the tips of the bows and thus creating an air space between the foam (in the hull under the port just forward of frt crossbar) and the tips of bows... a space for water collection that wont drain?!

Tim(knucklehead..)
80 H16
So Ore

I realize this post is old....but did this guy fill the entire hull with foam?

Since you asked, no just from the forward tips back to the pylons. It has been six years since I did this and still today sail the boat in the ocean, no water damage to the foam and the hulls are still rock hard. My boat was a 76 and I was afraid of hull failure sailing in the ocean this is why I did this. The boat is old and used for fun.

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Coral Reefer
H-16
Flagler Beach, Fl

Hmmmm......Very very interesting. How much weight do you think I would ad to a H14 if I did this to the entire hull? Basically I have 3 boats.... a 16 with solid hulls and everything in good condition, a bastard 16 that I took all the good stuff off for my other boat (the hulls are very cracked and deformed, probably not worth the filling trick), and a hobie 14. The 14 has a sail that we bought new and have used once, and has been stored in the air conditioning for 8 years. Everything else on the 14 is in relatively decent shape. just the hulls are extremely soft. They arent really deformed like my bad hobie though so I wonder if I could just fill the entire hulls with 2# foam (save a little weight). Any pictures/tips for the process?

I also should mention that this boat is also old and would be used for fun. My dad found it floating in the middle of the gulf stream after a hurricane. We had an old trailer from a 15' whaler that we used for it. Then we bought a 13' Whaler which got priority for the trailer. Ever since then (like 10 years ago) the Hobie has just sat because we had no way to get it to the beach. Well now I went on this random collection of Hobies and I have 2 complete 16's and 2 trailers. Im junking the 16' hulls and selling the rest of one of the 16's for parts so I could put the 14 on this other trailer I have. I was going to keep an eye out for a set of solid hulls but this might be a better and cheaper way. Also, I am in Jupiter FL.

I did some stalking and re read alot of your posts. Seems like the route I want to go except I would like to fill my entire hulls. I was reading in the link listed below and it says the foam (well, at least the 2# foam is only 95-95% closed cell which means it will eventually soak up water. I wonder if this would really be a problem though considering I dont see many ways of it getting in. There is also a 3# foam. How many cubic feet do you think are in 1 hobe 14 hull?

I used 4 # which added 16# to each hull. 1 gal of foam and 1 gal of hardner did 7 cubic feet. I think as I remember to fill the whole hull on a 16 was just shy of 14 cubic ft. Really no reason to fill the whole hull. From the failures I've seen most are just in front of the front pylon, that's why I just did the front half.

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Coral Reefer
H-16
Flagler Beach, Fl

Yeah unfortunately the area behind the trampoline assembly is soft on mine too.