As per the plans, all of the areas where the keel section and hull panels meet must be reinforced with epoxy fillets and glass tape. This adds a lot of strength (and weight) to the hull. I have heard that some people are skeptical of the strength of these boats. I can attest that these boats are exceptionally strong and still light weight (relatively speaking.)

 

When I had my Tiki 30, we were motoring across an inland lake at greater than 6 knots when I strayed out of the channel and came hard upon some rocks. The boat stopped dead in the water, and we all flew forward. I was able to get off of the rocks fairly quickly. Fortunately we were already on our way to the boat yard when it happened. Upon haul out, I started inspecting the hulls. To say the least, it was nearly impossible to find where we made contact with the rocks; I was expecting a chunk of the keel to be missing. There was one place on one keel that had a spot the size of a quarter where one layer of the fiberglass was missing and a small depression. It only took me about 30 minutes of labor to fix the problem and 4 hours waiting for the epoxy to cure.

 

These boats are tough.