Any success painting a Hobie 16?

I realize that the bottoms will sand off pretty easily but that could be fixed by reapplying every once and a while. My boat has a few ugly patches/scars and I would like to make it look a little better.

Painting a Hobie is the third fastest way to devalue it...right next to running it over with a truck and ramming it into some rocks. Save your $$.

j

Hmmmm well I certainly dont want to run it over with a truck. You would recommend just spraying the "scars" with new gelcoat? How hard is it to get the gelcoat to match?

I painted my Hobie, and it turned out pretty nice. I sold it pretty soon after I painted it, but I see it every now and then, and it still looks pretty good.

Here is a link to a video I made about it.

http://www.getwetsailing.com/hobie-cat-16/

Ive seen that video a few times already! Thanks

You don't have to spray gel coat. Sand down your ugly patches so they are a little deeper than surrounding gel coat. Than buy some gel coat, you only need a quart can, dont forget hardener. Mix up some gel coat, if the spot is laying flat like the deck, use a level and bricks or something to get it real level, then pour the gel coat on thick, let dry then sand.

if it is on the side or bottom use a paint brush to apply the gel coat. I have brushed it on before, I just layed a few extra layers on so that the brush lines would sand out and leave proper thickness. If you spray gel coat, it leaves a texture like orange skin, you have to sand it flat and polish it, so brushing and spraying are very similar for small spots. Duratec help a lot as an additive but is expensive. I got some gel coat for 25 bucks a quart.

I just re did my dagger boards with gel coat, I sprayed them with a 13 dollar spray gun. Sanding was the most work. I am waiting till it gets warmer before I apply another coat. It being cold was my biggest mistake. I live in SD.

Also when I bought my two hobie 18's I wet sanded them with 600 grit, on and electric sander. Then went over it quickly with wet 1000 by hand, then dried and waxed with an electric buffer. The gel coat looks great, and it has that shine, you can see your face. I swear it added 1 mph. I

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I should have been more specific. Painting Hobies, with paint is the second best way to coat the hulls. Gel coat is the best. Gelcoat is much more forgiving, will last infinitely longer and is oftentimes less expensive. The absolute best paint job that I've ever seen on a Hobie lasted 3 years and was done by a professional yard for $1500. They painted a 1979 Hobie 16 glossy black. There's a boat that was painted white 2 years ago here in the harbor that is peeling like you wouldn't believe. So there are the two extremes. Our glass shop just regelled a Hobie 14 blue, and here's the Surf City Racing Team on their blue gelled 20:



Gel coat is the right way to go. It's much, much more stout of a coating. Prep is easier, and it's less costly than the really good boat paints. How many years did your current gelcoat last? Expect at least that many more.

The way that I see it is if you're going to go through the trouble of taking the boat apart, fixing all of the damage, massive amounts of sanding and fairing, you might as well use a coating that is going to last. Use gel coat.

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I've sprayed quite a few with new gelcoat and that's the only way I'd do it. I've seen boats in the past couple of years that I recoated in the '80s and they still look good. Do all the repairs needed first and get someone to spray it who has good equipment and knows how. It's not a backyard job with cheap equipment unless you are good at wetsanding and buffing and have LOTs of free time. The nonskid requires the gelcoat to be thinned a lot with styrene and it has to stay clean until it dries. The nonskid is not something you want to have to go over to do any touchups to. I did the nonskid separately and then masked it off to spray the rest of the hull.

Don't ask. I don't do this anymore.

Question:

We just finished applying epoxy resin/fiberglass to reinforce the bottom of my hulls from wear and tear. I dont have the time to apply gel coat right now but was thinking about applying some awlgrip to the repairs just to seal/finish them for now. Then when the boat gets some down time I will fix the boat up and gelcoat it. What do you think?

Gelcoat won't stick permanently to epoxy anyway so Awlgrip will be fine on your bottom job. Mask it off where the epoxy stops and you can mask it off the other way when you gelcoat it.

Tom's right about the Gel/epoxy interaction. That's exactly why I said to use POLYESTER resin in the other post...

You've already spent triple the amount you should've spent on the epoxy alone, so might as well go whole hog and spring for some Awl Grip too. The beach sand will take care of that in about 3 landings!

$164.33 Awlgrip (not including reducer and converter)


Compared to:

$50.55 Gelcoat


And...

$35 Gallon of Polyester and hardener


Compared to:

$150 Gallon of Epoxy and hardener


Most of the time, by using epoxy on Hobie repairs you're just wasting money and creating a whole string of problems for yourself down the line. I'd start over and do it right.

j

Well the west system and awlgrip was free, next time I get a chance I will take the hulls off again and give it another try. The previous owner had some horrible repairs done that I was able to rip off by hand which exposed holes in the bottom of the hulls. I also need to repair some cracks and weld new pylons on. If I had to do that along with all the new rigging/fixing/purchases I would have never been able to sail her anytime soon. I am going tomorrow for the first test run as soon as some overnight parts from the Hobie dealer get here. Just wondering, if I want to gel coat what can I do? can I apply polyester over the epoxy?

If you are doing repairs remember that finish is important and can determine the materials you use for the job. Epoxy can go on polyester resin but not the other way around. Because of this you have to Paint epoxy & gelcoat polyester resin or paint if you like. I have painted a h14 with good results lasted 8 years, but I would have preffered to do it with gel coat looking back.

With regarding painting a Hobie 16 . I am relatively new to Hobie sailing and sailed everything else . Got my wife into sailing dinghy's here in Cape Town - South Africa . She turned out to be a real adrenalin freak and only wanted to sail in winds of 25 knots + . So I sold the dinghy with the wife with tears in her eyes . I bought a Hobie 16 ( 90 185 ) and took the wife for her first sail , she loved it and is hooked . While on vacation there was a French Hobie 16 . She asked me the spray job looked so nice and ours so tatty ? I said that is not spray but jel coat ! Now our Hobie 16 is for sale and she wants a new French Hobie 16 !! Am I not lucky when my wife wants a new Hobie 16 , my prays are answered I always wanted a French Hobie 16 ! So what I say is a sprayed paint job will never look as nice Jelcoat job .

Whats the difference between a French 16 and a normal one?