Hi Chris,
While trying to manuver the boat to get the water
out, the hull came to rest on part of the trailer
which put a 1' crack in it directly under the storage
area, which helped greatly in draining the hull.
Hmmmmm...., A bit unorthodox, but it's one way to drain a hull. 8^)
If these cracks in the cockpit are splits that go clean through - that is
the glass mat and roving has been broken through, I think you should treat
them as holes and patch accordingly. I say this because they will benefit
from having reinforcement installed beneath the split. This may require that
you actually cut them wider. You are fortunate if the cracks are in places
you can reach after installing an inspection port, such as in the front
corners. You could do a down-and-dirty repair by shoving epoxy putty in the
crack. I just don't think it would last.
Your impromptu drain hole should probably be cut open a 1/4" - enough so
that you can get a roving patch behind it. Then fill with mat shreds and a
resin & milled fiber mix.
My approach to gelcoat over a patch is to first patch with fiberglass right
to the surface. Then I use a Dremel tool with the depth collar/router
attachment and mill bit. I set the depth to 1/16" and route out the surface
of the patched area + 1/4" overlap. This shallow recess gets filled with
gelcoat of the appropriate color. When the gelcoat is sanded smooth and
buffed it blends right in.
You can gelcoat an entire hull. Keep in mind gelcoat is simply colored
Polyester Resin (fiberglass resin). It requires a catalyzed mixture to be
sprayed on -or- a baking booth to set the gelcoat. If you have the
compressor, spray gun, etc. you can DIY. Professional re-coats run in the
neighborhood of $500+. A two-part epoxy marine bottom paint can be used to
repaint the hull instead of gelcoat. $70 for paint + throwaway brushes and
rollers -or- a spray rig if you have one. Least expensive is the pseudo
epoxy (EZ-poxy, etc) enamel bottom paints. They go on easily, but only last
a season or two... $50 paint + equipment. Personally I recommend just
patching, buffing out, and going sailing. If you don't want to apply gelcoat
at all, rename your boat "Spot" and then go have fun.
Wayne
-----Original Message-----
From: vissagoth@... [mailto:vissagoth@...]
Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2004 10:11 AM
To: sunfish_sailor@...
Subject: [sunfish_sailor] New member w/ cracks
Hello. I just found this group lastnight researching what to do with
the cracks I have in my sunfish. It had been sitting out side, in
what I thougth was a covered area since the begining of this past
winter. Went to move it yesterday and found it was full of water.
The ingress point was two cracks in the cockpit. One about 4", the
other about 1.5'. While trying to manuver the boat to get the water
out, the hull came to rest on part of the trailer which put a 1' crack
in it directly under the storage area, which helped greatly in
draining the hull.
I will be attempting the repair myself.
I have found several writeups on how to repair hole, where you cut it
out than use mat, roving and resin to seal it back up. But is that to
be used for cracks as well?
Besides the repair I will be installing two inspection ports to help
dry it out.
Also, once I repair the cracks, how do I replace the Gel coat? Would
it be possible for me to redo all the gel coat on the hull?
-Chris
