New Hobie cat owner!

Hello everyone,

I just bought my first hobie cat 16 (1986) which is 4 years older than I am, and to me that sounds crazy.

Right off the bat I got a new tramp, rigging and lines and I'm hoping to get a couple years out of the hulls and sails before I need to gelcoat/replace them respectively.

The only issues I'm left with now is some repair work on the mast and rudders. In a couple small sections of the comptip and rudders there is fiberglass weave barely showing through. The rudders I'm not as concerned with as they are not as much of a load bearing of surface and I figure some fairing and gelcoat or just gelcoat would solve that. The mast I'm looking for some experience on answers.

A. Do I use a westsys fiberglass repair kit and actually glass over the open weave with their epoxy/cloth and then sand and gelcoat?
B. Do I just use some fairing, sand, gelcoat?
C. Do I just gelcoat?
D. It's a 28 yr old boat, summer is around the corner, sail the boat for the summer and chalk this up as a winter repair when I have indoor space to do the work.

Thanks for your help! I can't wait to get on the water, after 18 some odd years sailing monohulls I finally gave in to the cats.


Tadd

Sounds like your rudders are EPOs....are they black and weigh ~4 lbs. each? There are lots of threads (search Help With Repairs) on refinishing EPOs, but the short version is to sand, apply epoxy (not polyester) with graphite powder and appropriate filler to build coat as needed, sand, and topcoat with something to protect against UV (I use rattle-can appliance paint). Basically the same for the comtip.....make sure to mask the plaslic luff track, including where it joins the tip.

It doesn't sound like the condition of your parts calls for urgency.....sail now, work in winter! Good luck!

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Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16

Huge help, thanks.

Exactly what rattle said!!

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https://m.facebook.com/IEhobiefleet30/
Redlands California
2005 Hobie 16 with 2010 euro national sails.
1981 Hobie 16 cat fever

Hey Tadd, where are you located and where do you plan to sail, might be some one in your area that would be of some help to you.
Jay

+3



But when you do get to working on it... Pay far more detailed attention to the rudders than the comptip. Those rudders have as much or more 'power' in them than the sails do...

Original EPO's are awesome!


Have you found your local Hobie fleet yet?

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www.thehobiewayoflife.com

Great advice! I put the first coat on the mast, looking to do 3 or 4. And I just completed the second coat on the rudders. I had in mind that I would spend much more time on making these as slick as possible knowing anything in the water is drag. Here is how they look so far after 220 grit and paint. Next I might go to 600 then paint. Then finish it up with 1200 or 1400 and wax. I have also only done one coat (this last one) where the rudders would be in the casting. I think I might do the next coat short again to make sure they still fit.

I haven't located the local Hobie fleet yet but I am definitely interested in it. I'm sailing out of Portsmouth, NH. But I plan on sailing the boat from the lakes up here to mid coast ME where my family has a place.

Good thinking....forgot to mention it, but EPO heads are thicker than the other rudders. Paint probably wouldn't be a problem, but a coat of epoxy could. My EPOs won't fit it my daughter's ~83 H 14 castings.

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Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16