I had the opportunity to saw through the deck and hull to view the results of a Hobie 14 deck soft spot repair. The deck had been repaired five years earlier by a retired engineer who sails at our club. The boat was finally retired after damage to the rear hull. The soft spot was just ahead of the forward pylon. Each side had been repaired by drilling a series of quarter inch holes about two inches apart. These were filled with Great Stuff foam. A single layer of fiberglass was overlaid and glued into place for repainting. This stiffened up the site very well. Before cutting the hull for inspection, I had tried stomping my foot through the repair of the opposite hull. It was very solid. The transverse cuts showed the Great Stuff foam had flowed on both sides of the original inner foam. The spray foam was solid and in good condition. It was adherent to both layers of inner and outer fiberglass and to the original construction foam layer. The dimensions of the original deck sandwich were 2 mm of outer fiberglass, 4 mm middle foam layer, and about 2 mm of inner layer fiberglass. Where the Great Stuff foam was injected, some of the total thickness of the reconstructed deck was two inches. I have some great photos, but I have not figured out how to attach these to this report.[ecsmootmd@suddenlink.net]
I've used Great Stuff, for weatherproofing & sealing door jams etc. I always thought it would absorb water over time. It does stick like bear shyte to a buffalo blanket if you get it on your clothes, it will never wash out.
This is a great project to make an album. Put the album under "technical help".
Here is the intel on how to do it.
http://www.thebeachcats.com/faq/view/Main/10002/
E C Hilliard
Nacra 5.7
Bombardier Invitation
Thanks for the Link. Picture album has been added under technical albums.
Edited by ecsmoot on Aug 13, 2013 - 08:31 AM.
See link above for convenience.
Thanks for posting this autopsy info and for taking the trouble. Good to know this works so well.
Edited by dennisMe on Aug 14, 2013 - 01:28 PM.
ecsmoot, great job on the pictures, very informative. And welcome to TheBeachcats.com!
The great stuff foam repair is a little unusual compared to the normal epoxy injection delamination repair, but whatever gets you back on the water. π
If you could do one more thing to your album and go there and click on the "Edit Captions" link to the left, you will be able to add descriptions to each photo explaining what we are seeing in each one. Helps a lot years later when someone discovers the pictures.
Thanks,
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Damon Linkous
Done, thank you.