Fixing Hull Scratchesby By Mike WallaceI spent part of this winter taking my Hobie 17 apart and refinishing the hulls, boards, and rudders. Having never done this before I thought it would be good to share my experiences. Taking my boat completely apart is one of the best non-water exercises I've tried. This removed the mystery of what holds the thing together and revealed potential problem spots I needed to watch. My 17 was completely apart in 15 minutes. It turned out that being equipment manager for Fleet 72 was a big win. I am storing the great boat stands built by Kim Archer for Fleet 72's exhibits at the boat show. These are great for holding the hulls at any angle when working on them. First I sanded out all of the shallow scratches from the hulls with 220 sand paper. The best sanding block I've found is just a chunk of Styrofoam. It is soft enought to conform to contour changes in the hull (important since most of the hull has a rounded surface) and is very light and easy to hold. I then cleaned any dings/holes with acetone and applied Hobie's gel coat repair putty (see the Hobie catalog). My experience is that it is best to wait at least 2 days before doing anything else. After one day the gel coat repair is difficult to sand and wants to stick to the sand paper. I try to spread the gel coat putty as little as possible past the area I'm patching and always cover it with wax paper to make it smoother when dried. Once cured I will use a fine file to trim off any excess gel coat built-up around the repair and then sand lightly with 220 grit. "Lightly" is important here. Rubbing too hard will create too much heat and might pull some of the putty out of the hole. Once I have finished any gel coat repair and sanded out the scratches with 220 grit the following procedure yields a finish that looks just like a new boat out of the box! 1. Wet sand with 400 grit. I use one of those plastic spray pump bottles filled with water and constantly spray the area I'm sanding and the sand paper. Once in a while feel the sand paper. You will notice that it becomes much smoother after a period of use (these periods get shorter as the sand paper grit becomes finer). When it feels significantly smoother use a different spot on the paper or replace it. 2. Wet sand with 600 grit. 3. Wet sand with 800 grit. A lot of folks I've talked with have been skeptical of the need for using 800 grit. However, my experience is that it drastically reduces the amount of buffing required to get a truly smooth surface. In fact, if I had 1200 grit I would probably use it too - but I'm an admitted fanatic about these things. 4. Apply 3M's "Super Duty Rubbing Compound" (available at West Marine) with an electronic orbital buffer and a wet pad. I do this 2 to 4 square feet of hull surface at a time and then wipe off the residue with an old towel. 5. Apply 3M's "Finesse-it II" (available at West Marine) with an orbital buffer and a wet pad. This is really amazing stuff. It leaves a finish on a boat that is as good or better than anything else I've seen. It is also great for taking off oxidation and contains no silicon or wax. At $30 a bottle, use it efficiently. Once this stuff has dried to a film buff or rub off with a clean soft towel. 6. As a final step you can use Starbrite's Marine Polish (blue bottle). This stuff cleans and polished the gel coat very well and I'm told that it is used by many Olympic level competitors. I know what you are thinking. Mike's gone over the deep end - yes, probably so. In fact, I now get the shakes every time I think about dragging the boat across sand - let alone a rocky beach at Yale or Cascade Locks. Hopefully, some of this information will be useful to someone out there. Just remember, that these boats we sail are to be enjoyed, not put on a pedestal like a museum piece. Back to Tech Tips |