Delamination

<<MMiller, need your help on deteriorated foam in hull, would this work: cut a inspection port hole, with a long piece of metal clean out deteriorated foam, vacuum, then use epoxy and fiberglass mat mixture and "stuff" it into the void areas using the piece of metal ? Pushing it back until it gets to good foam. Do this in all directions from the access hole. Making the area solid with epoxy & mat cloth. I have done a little fiberglass repair. I saw where someone else asking a similar question. I could angle boat in direction I was pushing mat so the epoxy would stay in place or use a gel epoxy. So what do you think,>>


That is an interesting idea that may work in a smaller area.

The "normal" suggested delamination repair does work very well.

This is under the FAQ topic of the forums:

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

Hulls - Soft or Delaminated hulls on older boats

Soft hulls are caused by the foam and fiberglass layers becoming seperated or delaminated. This can be caused by heat, repeated compression (walking on) or other factors related to materials and age. This is normally correctable. A soft area is a structural breakdown and should be corrected before sailing the boat. Soft areas in decks near or ahead of the forward cross bar can cause complete failure of the bow and must be repaired before sailing the boat.

If your Hobie has soft or "delaminated" hulls or deck areas, take a look at the following link:

http://www.hobiecat.com/support/tech/delam.html

I did a search on Google to find information on the material that is excellent for this kind of repair "Git Rot" Flexible penetrating epoxy:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Git+Rot

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

The boat is old, & I really do not want to see it die. About the hulls, it feels like the foam is gone, I believe this idea would be better than Great Stuff or Gorilla glue. It sounds like it would work.

_________________
Let me thru !

Mr. Miller,
I was wondering if this repair is also acceptable on other parts of the boat, the inside of the hull for instance? I had repaired my starbord deck, sucsessfully, but have recently found out after a capsize that the interior of the port hull is also soft, pretty much the length of pylon to pylon. I'll most likely be looking out for some used hulls or a new boat all together but I was wondering if this repair method would work as a last resort in case I'm not so lucky finding something else. I've had some mixed reviews as to whether or not this is repairable, I was just wondering what you might think?

kissmysail,
If you have soft decks, this repair definately works. I sailed on my boat a couple of times after doing this repair without incident. Unfortunately as you see above I have additional problems with the other hull that was not repaired, but it has hard decks. Go figure, right? After the repair, the deck would take all of my 250lbs, literally lifting my feet of the ground. Probably not a good thing to do to a Hobie bow but I wanted to be sure. I don't know if you're going by feel alone to determine if the foam has deteriorated but I can say from my experience that's kind of the way my deck felt when I pressed on it. There was very little resistance. The Git Rot is really easy to work with. It really penetrates in there, with the right temperatures, and fills in the voided areas very well. If your gonna do a delam repair this one makes a lot of sense. If I could just offer one bit of advice about the repair, I would make the breather holes around the area of the delam repair much smaller than the holes that you drill to insert the epoxy. The size that I used for the breather holes was way overkill, I can't remember right now but I could find the size of the bit if you like. And definatly make little channels into the foam with a bent nail. I did it first without doing it and it took a looong time to pump the git rot in. Luckily it was really cold outside, that Git Rot is really sensitive to temperature and having the channels lets you pump that stuff in a lot quicker. With the channels in there it was more like the epoxy was flowing in without me having to squeeze the bottle so much, wheras without them it was an effort to pump it in. Best of luck with your repair.

_________________
James
86' Redline Hobie 16
Sail # 76909

The injection system will work on tops and sides. Any place there is a delamination.

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

Ok. Thanks. That's good to know. I think I'm still gonna look around for some new hulls, just out of preference, but I may end up doing the repair as well.

_________________
James
86' Redline Hobie 16
Sail # 76909