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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 10:51 am 
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So I bought a 1970s vintage H14 last year just to try it out after sailing dinghies for a few years and, of course, I'm totally hooked. The boat is in pretty decent condition for its age and I'm not interested in racing, just casual sailing around the lake.

Sorry to add another delamination question to the board, I tried to find other relevant posts, but this problem seems different.

The boat has a soft spot about 1 foot square on the nonslip tread in front of the trampoline. I can flex the spot about 1/2 inch. I followed the advice on the board bought the marine epoxy filler and drilled holes about 1/2 inch deep which is where I seem to hit the underside of the foam sandwich.

What seems strange is that as I look at the sandwich all 3 layers (top fiberglass, bottom fiberglass and white foam core) still seem to be laminated together and they all seem to be moving when the soft spot is flexed.

Also, when I flex the soft spot, it sinks below what would appear to be the normal faired shape of the hull and then contacts something which sounds like a more brittle foam below.

Could there be a delamination of the whole fiberglass sandwich with some type of interior core material?

What does the cross section of a hull look like?

Can the gap be filled by drilling all the way through the interior fiberglass and injecting epoxy into the interior of the hull?

Thanks for any advice (and for all the useful info already posted!)


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 9:04 pm 
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Location: Detroit, MI
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 21, 2010 9:48 am 
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Thanks for the pictures. It really helps to see how thick the hull sandwich is, I had the impression that it was much thicker.

I'll go ahead with the normal delamination fix and see if the hull stiffens up.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 7:56 am 
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Location: Loganville, GA
How did it go? I've got a similar problem with mine.

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- Andy
=> Hobie Cat 14 <=
=> 1978 Chrysler 26' Herreschoff Designed Monohull <=


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 11:42 am 
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The normal delamination fix seems to have worked. I drilled about 20 shallow holes and injected epoxy just below the upper fiberglass layer. Epoxy bubbled up through neighboring holes so there was clearly separation of the top layer from the foam core. I did not clamp the hull in any way during curing because this would have depressed the normal faired shape of the hull. (Since my top fiberglass layer was right next to the foam core anyway, there didn't seem to be a need to clamp). I let the epoxy cure and everything seems stiff again. Pretty simple fix.

Good luck on yours.


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 10:25 am 
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The top of the hulls on my old Hobie 14 are also soft. Based on comments, it's probably delaminated, I'll try injecting epoxy. But the tops are all weather beaten and the color is washed out. I've thought about putting a layer of fiber glass on top to provide additional strength. Is there a way to re-color the top of the pontoons?


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 2:07 pm 
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Adding another layer of glass will not do anything other than add weight. If the sandwich is delaminated, the only real fix is epoxy injection.

If the color is bleached out, then you can always paint the boat (after you fix the delam).


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:44 am 
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I love the Photo's , It's nice to see a better view what is going on in this process !!


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PostPosted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 9:35 am 
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After injecting mine this morning , i seen the epoxy bleeding out through many of the tiny holes . I think it may take several times to complete this process. I injected 16 oz into it and it still has room for a lot more . I was wondering if it would hurt to do it in steps to completely fill this void?


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