Soft spot in exhaust hose.

This is for my new to me 2009 San 230 with a VR409. There is a soft spot in my exhaust hose. The hose has a bit of a soft spot in it and when I press down there is a bit of give. I am assuming there was an overheat issue at some point that cause the kink but it wasn't enough to fully collapse the pipe.

Since replacing the exhaust pipe seems like a real pain I'd prefer to not replace the exhaust hose or at least put it off until the end of season. Since the boat appears to be running fine is this something I can leave as is, at least for a few months?

Where exactly is the soft spot located? My thought is if it is on a section that is laying in the bilge you can probably wrap it with some good radiator hose repair tape or the infamous Flexseal tape, IF it is on or near a bend, particularly the closer you get the the manifolds, I'd say replace it sooner rather than later.
Several years back with my last boat I had an issue with a kinked cooling hose. Luckily my wife's 'super nose' detected burning rubber before I had a melt-down. I did end up with a connecting boot after the CC that was really soft in one area and thought I could get by for a while without replacing it since I had fixed the kink and everything was nice and cool again. Famous last words. It blew in the middle of the lake during a short WOT run. I got back to shore with the aid of a roll of duct tape - Flexseal wasn't around back then - but the day was blown.

A hole. Is it above the waterline? Best to have an idea just how far the boat would sink just in case your family is onboard. Then again maybe it’ll last the season.

How close to the transom is the bad spot?

Any chance of doing a colonoscopy with a borescope?

With a vdrive you'd probably have to go in just as far too Pete. Don't let Quinner talk you into doing it for free.

In the perfect world it's simple.

In the real world it might be simple or you might run into broken off bolts and ugly mating surfaces.

only one way to find out, You'll know when you do it

Thanks,

When replacing the bolts should I be using some type of anti seize?

Here is a pic of the issue. I guess looking again it's more of a kink then a soft spot. It doesn't have much play but is bigger then I first thought.

I have ordered a riser gasket, new hose and new bolts from skidim. it should all come next week. I'll probably remove the riser this weekend. So everything is ready to get put back together next weekend or I can plan ahead in case I have any issues.

As far as using the boat goes, do you think I shouldn't run it until this is replaced?

The muffler on the boat sits above the water line and the hose is above that so the chance of sinking the boat is low but I don't want to take any risk if that is the consensus.

I was able to replace the hose today without removing the manifold.. Taking the old one off ended up being more work then getting the new one back on.

There was no identifiable damage on the inside of the old hose. No idea what the issue was. This was particularly upsetting once I had hacked it off and wasn't sure how I was going to get the new one on..

Lubed with a good amount of dawn. First side slide right on. New side was a little tricky but I was able to old the hose and work the end on slowly from an angle.

I also learned that a utllity knife does a much better jump off cutting the hose (My 230 uses the softwall hose) then a hacksaw.