I have been looking at a hobie 16 and it has some small soft spots in front of the tramp. How hard are these to fix??

Michael

I just found some softs spots on mine cat. Looking on this forum it appears pretty easy. Check out my post of Prindle 18 Sails and we talk about it a little. I would recomend west system or some other quality epoxy. Do some searches and you will find a ton of info. Based on what I found it seems that you tape with painter tape, drill holes 1/8 inch about 2 inches apart and inject with epoxy. That is the abriged version from a guy who has not done it. Just trying to point you in the right direction. Justin

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Michigan
P18
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Another option that is way more dificult is cut out old and replace with new fiberglass. That is the best way but a whole new level of effort. Since I am wondering about soft spots my self. Can anyone tell us that has fixed soft spots how long and hard they have sailed since they fixed their boat. Plus horror stories are always fun when they happen to others.

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Michigan
P18
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there was no bigger pos "roach" of a p-16 on this site than my '77!!! bar none it was rode hard and put up wet, one hull smashed off of it, every bolt bent, bent mast, wore out rudders, on and on...not to mention a handfull of soft spots in all kinds of places(some small some 4' long), keels skint through so water poured in, port holes falling out...it was scarey! with a burning desire to get back out on the water we fixed things one by one and sailed her throughout the process until we tore something else up or discovered a new oh s#*t!. this will be my 4th season with the boat, it has made somewhere around 75 trips to the coast-sailed in 50knt winds, 7ft seas, loaded down with some "biggie" sized peoples and enough beer/ice for octoberfest. there are no signs of the injection repairs or any of the other major glass repairs failing, i would feel comfortable sailing her anywhere in extreme conditions, i know all to well exactly what condition the boat is in and feel confident there is nothing on the boat we can't fix or replace. i have yet to see a pic of a prindle with the bow torn off! seen some nacras and hobies but not a prindle yet. even if you tear off a hull, you have another one to sail home on. i challenge you to destroy your prindle! go for it!


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Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook!
bill harris
hattiesburg, mississippi
prindle 16- "BLUE RIBBON"
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They are somewhat tank like aren't they



Edited by Quarath on Apr 02, 2012 - 11:51 PM.

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Dustin Finlinson • Magna, UT
Member: Utah Sailing Association
1982 Prindle 18
1986 Hobie 17
1982 Prindle 16
1980 Prindle 16(mostly)
1976 Prindle 16(mostly)
Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook.
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I will be doing some sof spot repairs on my kid's 14 this weekend. Git Rot, Masking tape, drill bit, beer....sorted :)

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85 Prindle 16
"If you aint the lead dog the view never changes"
North Carolina
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"This will be my 4th season with the boat, it has made somewhere around 75 trips to the coast-sailed in 50knt winds, 7ft seas, loaded down with some "biggie" sized peoples and enough beer/ice for octoberfest."

Holy crap batman. 50 knt wind! I wouldn't have thought these boat could handle wind like that. Do you have a couple reef points in your sail? Was that with only a jib? How was that? That must have been a heck of a good time after you cleaned your shorts. That is certainly a strong support for injection of the hull and Prindle design quality. That will make me feel better when I am flying in heavy hair on Lake Michigan.

Cheers
Justin



Edited by waterrat on Apr 03, 2012 - 01:35 PM.

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Michigan
P18
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Far as I know I don't have soft spots, but I had a Hobie 14 that did once upon a time. I got rid of the boat and got a fairly solid Prindle 16. That was years ago, though.

But...

I'd like to know how to fix soft spots so I can deal with them in the future. So I'll describe what I've seen in the hope that a wiser and more seasoned head can set me straight:

Like waterrat said, it looks like you lay down painter's tape everywhere you have a soft spot. Then lay out a grid of spots about 2" apart. I found a nice set of photos that showed them being laid out in a hex pattern (which was pretty darned cool!).

Now's where I get fuzzy...

Depending on whose photos or Youtube video you look at, it looks like you drill shallow holes at each of the spots on your grid, with the drill bit stopping part way through the laminate. Once all the holes are drilled, you shoot each one full of epoxy (is it neat epoxy, or epoxy mixed with filler?) Then in at least one set of photos, it looked like the person stuck wood screws into each of the holes and screwed them all the way into the deck to draw the laminate layers together. Once the epoxy cured, they removed the screws and re-filled each of the holes with epoxy to make the hull water tight again.

Is that about how it's done? Or is the screw step necessary?

coastrat, 50kts sounds downright terrifying! I had that P16 out on a lake in Central Texas when a storm blew in. We ran before it, shaking in our boots (ok, so we were barefoot). We never got a mast down so fast as that. I swore I'd never fly in that kind of wind, certainly not with that kind of weather behind it. I take my hat off to you, sir! (Ok, so I'm not wearing a hat, either. But you know what I mean.)

Tom

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Tom Benedict
Island of Hawaii
P-Cat 18 / Sail# 361 / HA 7633 H / "Smilodon"
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the photo with the wood screws was on a boat with real bad soft spots so we used the screws to hold the layers together, injected, and removed screws and injected again with filler added. not necessary on most repairs...i have gone with and w/o filler both with good results. i used filler on hull parts and straight resin on decks. filler on verticle parts and resin only on flatter parts...filler is prolly stronger overall. the repairs are stronger than the surrounding areas.

as far as 50 kt. winds, here is a secret...point up to the point of pinching, let the main and travelor all the way out and sail with the jib only. if the main catches any wind at those speeds then something bad is about to happen...if the winds are shifty then make dang sure you dont accidently tack during this fiasco! stay heading up, it's your only chance! if you are in a tight space then try to drop the main while heading up then you will be able to jibe and go downwind but don't try to use the main when it's howling! it's kind of tricky to reef the main underway and at high winds it doesn't help much, your better off dropping it and securing it to the tramp.

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Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook!
bill harris
hattiesburg, mississippi
prindle 16- "BLUE RIBBON"
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Awesome! Thanks for clearing that up.

And thanks for the info on sailing in 50kt winds. There's a channel crossing north of where I'll be putting in. Typical winds are 35kt+. The line between almost dead calm seas and that torrent is typically a few tens of feet. My plan is to avoid it like the plague. But in case I get caught by a wind shift that plops me right in the middle of that patch, I'll give that a try.

Tom

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Tom Benedict
Island of Hawaii
P-Cat 18 / Sail# 361 / HA 7633 H / "Smilodon"
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You should post the link to that hex pattern! I would love to see that.

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Michael Newman

Bay St. Louis, MS

prindle 16
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If I can find it again I will. Keep in mind my web surfing has been a little fast and furious lately. I picked up an older boat several weeks ago, and as I've disassembled and cleaned it, I've been finding all sorts of things that have needed work. I swear I've got drool coming out one corner of my mouth from watching too many Youtube videos on fiberglass repair.

From the looks of the pictures, I think the way they did it was to lay what looked like 1" or 1.5" blue tape in stripes, then lay another layer 120 degrees to the first, then lay another one 120 degrees to that. Where the gaps in the tape line up, drill holes. But it sure ate a lot of tape!

Tom

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Tom Benedict
Island of Hawaii
P-Cat 18 / Sail# 361 / HA 7633 H / "Smilodon"
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I did the git rot and drill bit repair yesterday, awaiting results now, i had some fairly large soft spots so i think that this will be a good reference for a extreme case. I'm going to give it a good week before I really do anything with it but I will update.
I used all of the 16oz kit, seems like a barely had enough. Softspots were 6-8 inces wide and started about 6 inches in front of the pylon and were close to 20 long. Ouch.

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Cesar (Cez) S.
Hobie 16 (had a few)
Nacra 5.2 "Hull Yeah"
Vectorworks XJ - A class (not named yet)
West Michigan (Grand Rapids/Holland Area)
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Ok, now I'm looking forward to your report on your sail tube AND your report on your soft spots. Please keep us posted.

Tom

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Tom Benedict
Island of Hawaii
P-Cat 18 / Sail# 361 / HA 7633 H / "Smilodon"
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benedict

Ok, now I'm looking forward to your report on your sail tube AND your report on your soft spots. Please keep us posted.

Tom

No doubt, me too, I'm excited to get everything going, I'll check the hulls tomorrow before I leave town and see if I'll need more git rot or not. I'll update tomorrow or Monday.
I'll take some rough measurements to see if the sail tube fits too.

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Cesar (Cez) S.
Hobie 16 (had a few)
Nacra 5.2 "Hull Yeah"
Vectorworks XJ - A class (not named yet)
West Michigan (Grand Rapids/Holland Area)
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Gonna be doing this with wests soon on my H17. Today though i screwed up and have several holes that went all the way through. I was using a bit stop and I tested the first few and they were great then I went gung-ho only to find out that the bit stop had slipped some.

I am not sure how to proceed to still make this work. There is no easy access to the inside of the hull where this is at. Should I mix up some thickened epoxy and try to fill just those holes enough to fill them and let that cure before doing the regular injection?

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Dustin Finlinson • Magna, UT
Member: Utah Sailing Association
1982 Prindle 18
1986 Hobie 17
1982 Prindle 16
1980 Prindle 16(mostly)
1976 Prindle 16(mostly)
Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook.
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I just bought my son a 77 h16 with a soft deck on both hulls. I am going to talk with a fiberglass guy this week on hints how to fix. Was very depressed until I started to read the form.

Unless he's a cat owner, he won't know process. Just get qt epoxy (with pumps), plastic syringes (West Marine), drill your 1/8" holes two inches apart & start injecting (in the shade in evening). Have paper towels on the ready when it kicks. Pete

You guys ever consider pulling a vacuum on the hull before you do the port to port gravity feed? A shop vacuum, a ball valve, a vac gauge and some creative duck tape work will do the trick. You don't need to pull 30hg. Just get it below atmosphere 0-5".

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82 Hobie 18 Alter Signature Model. (The Cisco Squid) Complete refit down to the rivets in 2012.
81 H-16
Rescue California
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can u use epoxy? the hull is polyresin? will they bond?

Epoxies bond well to polyesters. Polyesters don't bond to epoxies quite so well.

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82 Hobie 18 Alter Signature Model. (The Cisco Squid) Complete refit down to the rivets in 2012.
81 H-16
Rescue California
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