Recommended repair?

What would be the best method for repairing this gouge? I have a fiberglass repair kit on hand any and all advise would be welcome. Boat is apart and in basement and easy access

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Can you take a better picture? It’s hard to tell the size, location, and depth of the gouge from that photo. From what I can see, it looks like the damage penetrates well into the glass. If that’s the case, the proper method of repair would be to feather back the damaged area, fill it with successively larger pieces of glass, fair it, and finally gelcoat it.

Many would say just fill with putty and gelcoat it, but that’s likely to lead to spider cracks around the edge of the damage or possibly even srtuctural issues down the road. Again, it’s really hard to tell for sure the extent of the damage from that picture, so a clearer photo would help.

sm

A better picture would help.

It looks like there's foam in your picture. That means that the hole goes through the glass and into the flotation foam inside your hull. There also appear to be cracks in your gelcoat that might not go down into the fiberglass.

If it's down into the foam, I'd be even more aggressive than SRM. I'd cut out the entire area, going at least three inches outside the hole. I'd grind out all of the cracks in the gelcoat. If the fiberglass is cracked, you'll need to at least grind down into the fiberglass enough to be able to layer in some fiberglass tape over the cracks, going a couple of inches beyond where the crack stops. You need to feather this stuff down so that when you rebuild it will end up even with the existing fiberglass.

Then layers of fiberglass followed by gelcoat. Matching the existing gelcoat is difficult, but beyond the color difference, in the end you can end up with a finish that feels the same as the original and just as strong.

I'm about four hours away from you if you want to bring it up for me to look at some weekend. Or I intend to be down in Warwick on 12 May for Hobie Fleet 448 tune up day. There will be several people there who know how to work with fiberglass. We can probably figure out your appropriate battle plan.

Lots of video on the web for fixing a hole in the boat. Do it right the first time and you won't have to do it again. You'll use up more time than you thought, but can do a job as good or better than a professional because you're willing to invest that time. Follow all directions carefully and wear protective gear as appropriate. Power tools for grinding/sanding will make your life a lot easier.

Jim Clark-Dawe

Thank you Foam is not coming through and seems to still be water tight I'll get better picture today. And I'll do what I can to make the tune up day. last I saw the schedule wasn't up on 488 website but I'll be trying to get to the Mad Catter event

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