What's if feel like?
My hulls feel solid, at least everything that I've felt is solid. The decks, however, flex. I wouldn't describe them as soft, but they do flex a little when pressure is applied.
things will flex if you push hard enough, the thing to worry about is a
soft spot
ie if your deck flexes about the same amount with about the same pressure everywhere then your decks are probably ok
but if 1 area, typically circular and about the size of a small plate, flexes a lot more than the rest of the deck then you may have delam problems. ie a
soft spot
Where is this spot occurring on your hull? I had soft spots on my '79 hulls just in front of the forward pylons, and I understand that this is a common place to get them.
If it is indeed a sure-fire soft spot, you're gonna have to cut out port holes or inspection ports to air them out. That's what I did and it seems to work fine. Just make sure that you use high quality sealant, dont settle for the cheap stuff, because I could really tell the difference.
hope this helps
While you certainly can cut ports in the hulls to fix the soft spot, you don't absolutely have to. There is also a method of injecting epoxy into the hulls, specifically
git rot
epoxy. I did this on nearly the entire length of my starbord deck over a year ago and it has held up fine over the last year. Still rock hard. And I've probably been out on lakes/sea over 35-40 times since I've done it with no problems. There is a lot of info on this over on the hobie forums. The method is suggested by Matt Miller in the FAQ section.
If it is indeed a sure-fire soft spot, you're gonna have to cut out port holes or inspection ports to air them out. That's what I did and it seems to work fine. Just make sure that you use high quality sealant, dont settle for the cheap stuff, because I could really tell the difference.
hope this helps
This is a common place for delamination because it is highly stressed. When the main is sheeted hard the fore stay and main sheet pull up on the ends of the boat while the mast and front beam push down trying to bend the hulls. the deck in front of the pylons gets loaded in compression. IMHO this is not a good place to be cutting a hole in the deck. I recommend using the epoxy injection method on any boat you expect to be sailed hard.
I'm not familiar with the injection method, but it sounds reasonable. I've had two friends who had late 1970's 16s that had delamination in that location, just a bit forward of the forward pylons. They both cut out the affected deck area and refiberglassed the heck out of it. The boat I still see regularly was done 20 years ago and the area is still rock hard today.
It seems to be pretty even flexing through the entire decks when I put the majority of my 150lbs of weight on them.
When the weather warms up, I'm going to give the hulls a better inspection.