Need to Repair the gelcoat on my hull

Question

I recently had my boat battered against the shoreline in a bad storm. the gelcoat on the ridges of the hull are scraped off bearing the fiberglass. there are no known holes as i have had it in the water since and no water leaked in. How can i repair this problem?

Answer 1

BOATING IN VA is on target with his suggestions, but I'd like to add that Epoxy's sometimes make a better patch on the edges of the hull, underwater.  There is a "filled" epoxy called Marinetex that has proven very effective for this kind of repair, and is a generic white, but you can add coloring agent to it if you wish.  It cures much quicker and is harder once cured.   Good luck!

Answer 2

nobody has come along to answer this so I'll just go with what I know and let you make a decision.

The gelcoat can be repaired...by you...if you're up to giving it a try and there's no harm in giving it a shot either.

You didn't say how long or deep the scrapes are. You should be able to pickup, from a marine dealer, gelcoat that hopefully will come close to matching the color of the boat. Remember...whites are not all the same white and you should try to go with the like kind.

Take the boat out of the water and let the areas dry out. Not knowing where you are this could be in as little as a couple of days to maybe even a couple of weeks if the humidity is high.

Fill in the scraped areas with the gelcoat and scrape it down so it matches the molding of the boat. Do not worry about getting it perfect for you're going to wet sand it in a couple of days.

Cover the area where you placed the gelcoat with blue painters tape. This will help to 1) allow the area to cure from within and 2) keep any additional moisture out. In 2-3 days or a week maybe for really deep scrapes, remove the tape and wet sand the area. Once you've wet sanded all that is left is to put a coat of wax over top of it and you're done. You'll want to keep an eye on it for awhile to make certain it's holding up as it should.

Good luck!