Hunter 30-2 oil canning

19thol

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May 2, 2014
111
Hunter 30 St.Petersburg, Fl
Hey all, we have a 1990 Hunter 30-2 with a weak spot in the hull under the head on the port side. It's about a four foot square area, not sure how to fix it because of no access to the inside of the hull. Anyone out there have to deal with this? Any ideas?
 
Jun 9, 2016
1
Hunter 30 Vancouver
I have an 1989 30-2, same issue, and internet searches revealed other owners with same problem. Survey and prelim investigation didn't show any signs of delamination. Does yours actually flex?

I spoke to a few boat builders on a possible fix, but since there wasn't any major signs of delamination, the best solution they could offer was only cosmetic. (build up the area, fair, etc)

In speaking with the Hunter dealer, some old Hunter 40's came like this from the factory.
 

19thol

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May 2, 2014
111
Hunter 30 St.Petersburg, Fl
when hit with a plastic hammer you can see the area move. not sure what's happening while sailing, haven't noticed any snapping noises or anything like that. Originally I thought I could glass in a couple of pre made spars which looked to be a good solution, but access is the issue. Been thinking it might be possible to cut a hole in floor under the "
shower mat" and inject closed cell foam to support the soft area. Previous owner had the hull ground down and reglassed with what they called stiching mat? Didn't seem to have any effect.
 
Apr 16, 2010
79
88 Hunter 30 Solomons, MD
My 88 H30 had the same issue when I hauled out last fall. The area was larger than just the head, reaching almost back to the black water thru hull. I haul every other winter, and hadn't seen this in the last 3 hauls. The survey didn't show any issues when I purchased the boat. Internet searches didn't show much, but some people believe that the area is under served by stringers, and became weak over time. Hitting it with a mallet didn't show much flexing, and I used a hole saw to cut in and get an idea of what the fiberglass looked like. All was sound, and I could barely move the area when pulling against the hole. I used a usb endoscope with my tablet to look around, and I never saw anything remarkable, except the large amount of space without support.

I thought about pulling up the head floor to get at the area to strengthen, but there is virtually no chance that I would be able to gain full, useful access to the entire area, and I was concerned about putting the floor back together and making it look good. The marina advised against going that direction, and thought that grinding down the area and building it back up with reinforcements from the outside would be the better bet, which is what I ended up having them do. $2k later, and a couple of weeks worth of work, and it looks and sounds like new. We will see how it looks when I haul again in Fall of '17
 

19thol

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May 2, 2014
111
Hunter 30 St.Petersburg, Fl
Po of my boat did the same thing, the years later, problem is back
 

19thol

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May 2, 2014
111
Hunter 30 St.Petersburg, Fl
Called Hunter Marlow, spoke with a nice person that informed me they no longer have any drawing or any info on the older Hunters. He also said he has no idea where all that info went to. So no joy there.
 
Oct 30, 2011
542
klidescope 30t norfolk
Yes I'm familiar with the soft spot under the bathroom not enough support. Problem arose after soda blast found big split in hull you could almost stick your hand in it. Well I assume bottom paint was holding it together because bilge stayed dry or media blasted out old repair. So since it was kind indented in a low spot I just built up a polyester coat wit Bi axle Matt like 10 layers to get flat again. On hine site should of gone ahead and cut out and maybe added some more structure but my launch time was getting close and marina real expensive. Thought about pulling that rubber mat thing off bath floor and repair but hull much tougher with the 1/2" of New glass
 
Last edited:
Jul 20, 2005
2,422
Whitby 55 Kemah, Tx
One day I dinghied over to a Hunter 280 and I put my hand out to stop myself and felt the hull give a little at the port quarter panel. I was shocked. I didn't say thing to the owner but I guess I should have, just didn't know how to word it. The boat ended up crossing the Gulf Stream over to Bimini from Miami and it had not problems.

One thing I learned when doing fiberglass work is that stuff can take 100 times more flexing before cracking than one would think it can.