Older H16 '82.
Repairing the delam yesterday (git rot), going pretty well and the wife comes out and says "this seems to be going well, but what about the hole on the side?". My reaction, "haha, so funny" then I looked and that quickly turned into, "WTF!" and more explicit language.
Got a hole about the size of a nickel right in the middle on the outside of the starboard hull. Nut sure what it is from but it looks like the hull landed on a screw head or something, all of the fiberglass is pushed in about 1/2" or so, so it isn't a thru hole.
I have a couple guesses as to what might have happened but its there so it really doesn't matter, I have to fix it.

Technical help:
Planning on just filling the hole with Marine-Tex epoxy. The inside of the hole is pretty solid. It is actually more of a big ass dimple than a hole.
I'll probably shove a scotch brite pad in the dimple and spin it around to rough things up a little prior to marine-tex.
I have a small can of gel coat that I was planning on using to fill the holes from the delam repair. I plan on using this for additional water and uv protection.
If I can I'm going to have the marine-tex end just shy of the outside gelcoat of the hull, hoping for a flush repair when it is all said and done.
Applying the gel-coat is another thread, I won't go into that, I've never done it but after some time on you tube it seems pretty doable with the right prep and application techniques.

2nd opinions? Better way that this can be done? Any red flags? Additional steps or precautionary measures to take?

I already have the gel-coat and I think that the marine tex should cost 15-20 for a couple ounces.
http://www.jamestowndistr…ilyName=Marine-Tex+Epoxy

Just looking for additional input if any, thanks

I'll try to get a pic up, but my laptop is down right now with a bad power supply, I'm posting and checking from my phone and work pc.

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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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Probably be OK. Keep a close eye on it. Personally, I'd grind out the bad and enough beveling around that to be sure it was fixed and done with. It should be done with layers of glass but when I did a hole on the bottom edge of mine, I just ground out all the broken fibers and then added the boat filler with glass included. Hasn't been wet yet but it should hold. Thing is to get a good bonding surface for what ever you use.

Thanks for the input dtfuqua, ensuring a good bonding surface is huge, I'm not sure how yet but I'm going to take a little more effort than the scotch bright method that i mentioned above. Maybe scotch bright kicked up a notch, attached to a battery drill some how.....

I considered reinforcing it with glass also, but it seems like a pretty small hole for a lot of work. Structurally I think that it would be over kill. But I said "think", if I knew it all I wouldn't ask for additional input, so I just want to make sure that I say that I appreciate your input and I'm not shooting yours down.

I'll try to get the picture on tonight so that everyone can see it.

I'm not sure where but I remember seeing in my previous fiberglass research that you should really reinforce anything 1" or bigger. Since this is smaller I'm going to try to minimize my work and time and try to use marine-tex for glass reinforced filler like you said (depending on what west marine has). Then I'll just keep an eye on it. Not raining today like I thought it was going to so I might be doing this repair tonight.


Thanks again, still open for input

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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)
--

Well, I'm not one to go in for over kill and the hole in the keel of my boat went all the way through but it was small and I am familiar with bondo and such products so with all the prep work I did, I'm fairly confident in my repair. I am also re-doing the decks with the epoxy injection repair and it is coming out better than I ever thought it would. I had figured one of my hulls was to far gone but its coming right along. These things are/were so bad that it's taking more than a gallon of epoxy just in reinforcing the decks. And I did use the screws to keep the layers from spreading apart and using more epoxy than necessary.



Edited by dtfuqua on May 02, 2012 - 02:06 PM.

I'm with you on the delam repair on the decks, my soft spots were pretty big too, I used one 16oz kit of git rot and went though about 75% of a 32oz kit yesterday, BUT everything is seeming good. I'm excited.
For first hobie and VERY cheap I'm ok with doing this type of work, I enjoy the learning, restoring, and working with hands as much I do playing. Except for unnecessary holes and stuff (doh!)
I'll be reporting on my delam repair pretty soon, since I owe a user on here some feedback.

Headed to west Marine now, we will see what they have, its 80 and sunny here today, it was supposed to be 70 and rainy, if this repair is easy enough, I'll be doing it before I take the little guys to the beach.

There is decent wind too, I have two boats at home, a small mono and my H16, none of them are sail-able right now! :( I better get my ass to work.

--
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)
--

Plug it up with marine-tex and you are good to go. You can always decide to glass it in the off season.

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Pete Knapp
Schodack landing,NY
Goodall Viper,AHPC Viper,Nacra I20
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pknapp66

Plug it up with marine-tex and you are good to go. You can always decide to glass it in the off season.

Yup, that is what I did, everything cost the same at west marine, bondo type and marine tex, well ounce for ounce marine tex was a lot more but both were 19.99. 2oz of marine tex vs 6-8 oz of the bondo type stuff. But I only used about 1/2 of the marine tex on this.

I got the marine-tex because it said that it had more of a putty like consistency during the cure process, and it says that it works well in a vertical or overhead application. Which allowed me to work with it without taking the trampoline off and laying the hull down.
Partially true, once I added the catalyst it was just a little too runny, maybe too much catalyst and I probably could have waited for it to cure a bit, but I still got it done, filled the hole/dimple with m-tex, since it was runny I had to apply to the surrounding area and use something thing to keep it from running out of the hole while it cured. I saw a fiberglass repair video where they used plastic film to help gelcoat cure without the tack. I used a similar method using the non sticky side of packaging tape (sticky side facing away from the boat) and applied this over the m-tex while it cured. The extra m-tex arould the hole acted like a gasket. Waited a few hours then peeled the tape, worked like a charm, I have a decent amount of sanding to but I have some decent sanding equipment so it should be easy to do.

Also, off order, for prep work I took my dremel tool with a sanding cylinder and worked the inside of the hole, I quickly learned to do this at medium to low speed or else you'll remove too much material too easily.

Laptop is still down, I'll took pictures and I'll post them when I can.

I think that this is going to be a sufficient final repair but I'll be watching it over the summer and if I run into any problems I'll let you guys know.

Also reinstalled the carpet on the sides of the tramp with contact cement. That is a pretty easy job... about time.

--
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)
--

Yes, POWER!!! tools are a mans good friend. I still have enough equipment for a shade tree body shop and use my DA sander all the time on this boat. I also use a cutoff tool with the safety hood removed and put a bur bit in it for grinding out small areas of plastic and glass. The DA sander not only makes quick work of sanding down excess epoxy but it does a better job than hand sanding.