Any Grp Experts

[Jocave]

A few months back I had a bit of a slow speed collision, didn't notice any damage apart from losing a fender but just been up to the boat to winterize it and noticed the gel coat has cracked and has an area of crazing on it, only noticed it since the boat has gone a bit green and mouldy, its been given a good clean but I can now see the damage, what is the best way to treat this??, its pretty localised to a small area and as the boat is unpainted I would like to keep it this way, I have looked at the various gel coat repair products but unsure exactly what I need, bit of a rubbish pic but its the area just below the cleat and above the ball fender

 

[Jocave]

Oh and all the products I looked at were white and my boat appears to be an off white almost magnolia colour ..

[JennyMorgan]

Good advice here:

http://www.pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/gelcoat-repair-colour-matching-18207

More good advice here, at least I think so:

I'm not surprised that you lost a fend-off, your picture suggests that you have skimped on the fender lanyard, especially on that big one. I reckon that you need a bit more diameter/strength. What do others think?

[Jocave]

They have been replaced now with more slimline ones held on with floating stretchy braided rope, hopefully that will keep them attached

[BroadAmbition]

Any GRP Experts?

Definition of an 'Expert'

Ex  =  Has been

Spurt  =  Drip under pressure

Solution  =   Get a 'Woody'

Griff

[Jocave]

Thanks for that Griff ,if my boat was born in the sixties then a bit of tree with some sort of preservative to slow down the rotting process would work but as mine is made of that new fangled stuff then I'm looking for a more modern  repair technique, ( only joking by the way BA did look fantastic when it passed me earlier on in the year)

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

Any GRP Experts?

Definition of an 'Expert'

Ex  =  Has been

Spurt  =  Drip under pressure

Solution  =   Get a 'Woody'

Griff

Ha ha , this is a one off repair not a continuous programme of holding things together , solution get a woody = get a huge bill very often , if single use plastics became wood over night then the problem with them would go away over night 

[JennyMorgan]

Having a 'woody' needn't be expensive, provided you are a competent DIY boatbuilder! 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Having a 'woody' needn't be expensive, provided you are a competent DIY boatbuilder! 

True but as a carpenter with 4 decades of experience iv yet to see a composite rot as fast as wood , planking boats is highly skilled work its not something you pick up in wood work class for sure , that said if your willing to learn then its highly possible to do your own repairs .

[JanetAnne]

In my experience, and making sure I do not take anyting away from such highly skilled boatbuilders,  the majority of woodies on the broads are maintained to a very high standard by their owners including structural repairs etc. If they could only be repaired by highly skilled workers then many of them would no longer still be here because the costs would far outweigh the value of these boats.

Ref the gelcoat repair. Matching the colour is going to be much harder than the actual doing the job. My first port of call would be a RAL and a BS colour chart. Once you have found your colour or as close to it as you can you will be able to order pigment using the RAL number or the BS number as appropriate. This pigment will let you tint clear gelcoat to your boats colour. By the way,  make sure you have a nice clean bit to match the colour to. Give it a quick polish or t cut to remove grime and dirt first so you are matching gelcoat without a layer of crap on it!!

 

[Guest]

I totally agree most of the wooden boats would have long passed away had it not been for owner maintainance , thing is it takes time to learn the nessasary skills its not your average normal wood work and there's a lot to learn but its all do able , boat yards that can handle repairs and rebuilds on wooden boats are as stated pretty expensive and becoming more and more rare .

GRP gell coat repairs are in many ways just the same ie highly skilled especially matching the colour , however on this repair it mostly out of direct sunlight and unlikely to have faded much .

My first experience of none matching gell coat came at Hardy when I in advertently fitted old stock ( different white gell ) hatch's to a  superstructure that had been moulded in the new white colour , under electric light there was no deletable difference but in sun light there was a massive difference .

Maybe its possible ( and I've no where idea ) to use a magic eye as lots of paint companies use them so it could be possible for gell coat I guess but it is that just a guess .

[JohnK]

You can get smartphone apps to do colour analysis if that helps?
Like this:
Color Analyzer - Get info from image with camera!! by Satoshi Nakamurahttps://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/color-analyzer-get-info-from-image-with-camera/id1160206848?mt=8


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk