Water in hull. Can not find leak.

Problem resolved. Clearly laid out concerns sent direct to Hobie Aus, saw the immediate offer of a replacement 2016 kayak.

A 2015 model, patched up or not, due to this design fault will loose its value in S/H market whether it leaks or not.

Glad to be rid of the issue for peace of mind.

The 2016 boat will have the new 3-way fitting installed in the front wall of the tank well. The low side of the fitting will still be at or below the water line. The new fitting has some design flaws that make it prone to installation error. It's an improvement over installing a thru-hull in the bottom of the tank well, but the design still needs work.

Mine needed to have a patch welded in the hull straight from the factory, but Hobie and my dealer helped me resolve the issue. I reinstalled the fitting higher up the front wall of the tank well and covered the whole thing in goop. It gets a lot less water in the hull now.


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The three way is a tad flimsey with not much flange area around the hole.. TBH I would have installed it on the seat side of bulkhead if I had a choice. Its certainly going to get a drenching in rough water.

I got no "sucking" action from the venturi seat scupper, so I removed the mechanism entirely. It would be a wet ride either side of the bulkhead, and I'd rather have the shorter run of exposed transducer wire.

You got any before and after shots of your fix?

I thought of a general fix to improve the seal of these 3 way fittings. Cut out an over size slotted base plate/disc washer from some plastic with a tank hole saw. feed the plug and wire through hole in hull, slip the oversized disc over the wire and covering the hole with reasonable flange overlap, goop between the two, and filling the slot. So all you have is wire through small center hole of disc. Then fill assembled plug interior with goop and screw down thru disc and hull using longer than supplied screws..Predrill screw holes in disc so you can line it up on assembly

This gets around lack of flange area to seal, reduces hole size thru hull, yet being removable allows plug to pass through first. It then gives a backing to compress press goop into back of plugs so the rubber inserts stay firm, as these tend to push in easier on three way fitting than on two way.

Agree re venturi as a waste of time, especially as there is no backflow prevention. Even if it works properly you have to open and close it, which is a pain you dont need. When closed I find it still slowly seeps back in even on flat water. Then if you get swamped with it closed it turns into an undrained laundry tub slopping around to destabalize you.

I also put a block of foam under front rail of seat so you dont loose stuff sliding under seat that you cant retreive when its on low setting.