Glass Fibre Repair

[Soundings]

The corner of one of my hatch openings has been damaged - it was like it when I bought the boat. The damage is to the base of the U section (the self draining chanel) which has had a knock and been cracked at the bottom of the U section. This crack lets water into the engine room, not a lot but some nevertheless. This part of the boat is not dual skinned.

I tried a repair by opening up the crack and filling with Gel Coat Filler. This part of the deck however flexes very slightly and the filler just cracked! Any ideas on a fix out there? Maybe heavy duty fibre glass paste?

Thanks

[C.Ricko]

There are lots of ways to make little repairs, it is hard to say how to without seeing it but here is one way..

grind it all right back and open the crack,on the underneath make sure you grind a good 10 inches either side, make a former to lay in the repair section, this could be done by laying a piece of wood covered in p38 in a good bit of channel.

wash the underside in styrene (or acetone) then apply about 10oz matt, remove the former and make good.

[C.Ricko]

Hi Colin,

Sorry, but I saw you today and did mean to come over but I got sidelined and did not come back.

If I see you are on the boat then I will pop over and give you a better idea.

[Soundings]

Thanks Clive, I was looking for someone from the yard as my pump on my Eerspacher has packd up and I wondered if there was a working one laying around that I could have tried before committing to a new or second hand one.

Look forward to meeting you idc.