Hondo Flat Bottom Drag Boat core repair, Help!!

Hi there,

I've finally found one of many of my dream boats, an early 70's Hondo flat bottom. It has a few stress cracks here and there that i am capable and confident in fixing, but it's a spot on the floor where the core is revealed that i am worried about.

The affected area extends about 4 inches in all directions of the exposed core. I will mention that the rest of the hull sounds and feels strong and intact.

I was hoping some of you could point me in the right direction as far as how to go about repairing this and what methods to use. I'd like to do the work myself ( i'm a medical student with limited funds :/... ), plus that's the only way to learn how to do this kind of work.

Thanks for the help! i'll post more pictures as they come along.

Re: Hondo Flat Bottom Drag Boat core repair, Help!!

Your pic does not reveal much. Get a little close please.

Re: Hondo Flat Bottom Drag Boat core repair, Help!!

Looks like you've got some bad delamination there. What happens is water can sneak through the top layers of glass either through stress cracks or bolt holes. Once the water get's between the glass and the wood it sperates the glass from the wood and starts to rot the wood. You can usually see delaminated areas because they are normally milky white in color. Another thing is take a quarter or a nickel and tap the entire hull. You want to hear a solid tap as opposed to a thud in all areas.

Once you've located all of the bad areas you need to cut or grind it out of your boat. In some cases the wood and stringers need to be replaced. When that happens it can be a major job and in some cases not worth doing.

I restored a 74 Hondo 20 years ago and they're great boats!

Re: Hondo Flat Bottom Drag Boat core repair, Help!!

thanks for the quick replies.

Yes the photo was much bigger when i uploaded it, not so sure why it's that small now. i'll get a better one up in the next hour or so.

the only place it is delaminating is in that area, everywhere else is solid.

So basically i will be safe just cutting out the rotted wood and replacing it? i've replaced the entire core on a much smaller and lighter boat (10' GW Invader). If I need to do this on this boat, i might resort to having it done professionally. But if i can just replace a section, i'll be just fine doing it on my own.

thanks again for your help, i'll get more pictures up soon.

Re: Hondo Flat Bottom Drag Boat core repair, Help!!

1960Fleetform said:

thanks for the quick replies.

Yes the photo was much bigger when i uploaded it, not so sure why it's that small now. i'll get a better one up in the next hour or so.

the only place it is delaminating is in that area, everywhere else is solid.

So basically i will be safe just cutting out the rotted wood and replacing it? i've replaced the entire core on a much smaller and lighter boat (10' GW Invader). If I need to do this on this boat, i might resort to having it done professionally. But if i can just replace a section, i'll be just fine doing it on my own.

thanks again for your help, i'll get more pictures up soon.

Click to expand...

From the pic it looks like a lot of that floor is delaminated. Looking forward to better pics.