HELP! How would you fix these cracks in a boat's gel coat?

B

Ben Montgomery

New member
Ok, long story short; I bought a new carstens canvasback and picked it up at the factory on my way though the midwest (I live in Idaho). When I got home I realized that the boat had some cracks. I told Carstens and the shipped me a new boat! It cost them so much to ship the told me to keep the old one and do as I like with it. So...I'd like to fix it if possible. I believe the cracks are in the gel coat (they are defnately not through the fiberglass.

Here are the pics. For reference, the hammer is 12” long. These cracks are in the gel coat and not through the fiberglass. In other words, water does not come into the boat, there is a layer of fiberglass under the gel coat. The gel coat has basically cracked away from the fiberglass in a few areas.

There are two cracks running parallel to each other directly under the seat. They are each about 24” long. There are also cracks where the oar lock plate secures to the bottom of the boat. On one side the plate has become detached, on the other there is just a 3” crack.

Here was my solution:
I think I would attempt to mix some resin with the commercially available powders or wood dust to form a peanut butter-textured consistency. They apply the compound on and into the cracks so that it hardens and acts as a sealant and provides strength. Then I’d probably fiberglass over the top to get a good seal…then paint the fiberglass.

Any thoughts? How hard might it be to fix?

View attachment oar 3 resize.JPG
View attachment oar 3 resize.JPG
 
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Ben,

Lou Tish is the glassing expert on boats like this but I've done some repairs to mine and this is my 2cents. The areas you show are areas where the hull halves are joined together after the molding process. The picture with the coast guard plate clearly shows this. The support shown is molded as part of the upper hull. When the lower and upper hulls are joined this is where the joint to the lower hull occurs (for this support).

It would appear to me that the taped the joint before removing all the blush and mold release, which is why it is separating. As you say there is no leakage because this joint is on the interior of the hull only. Same as for the other areas. If you want to reestablish the intended structural strength of these joints you will need to grind away the tape where it has separated and replace with new layers of tape. Peanut butter fillet over top of what you have is not the answer, you need to get down to the solid hull.

This is a polyester glass so you can use polyester for the repair. It will be less expensive for the repair product and just as strong as original materials. Really not to hard of a repair that you are looking at.

I'm away from home right now but, I'll be back home Sunday afternoon if you want to give me a call.
 
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I think it definately needs to be re-sealed. Paint could allow water to enter the gap between layers, thus undermining the integrity of the boat. I'd like to do it right, or at least tell the potential buyer how to do it right.

Thanks for the help!
 
Make sure not to stand or place heavy weight in the new boat unless in the water since the overall floor strength is not that great out of water. I have the same boat and those cracks and seperations could, not saying they are, but could be just from that. Someone might have stood in it on the ground and it seperated in that area. Either way Dave pretty much sums up on how to repair this problem. Fix it, sell it, buy a motor for the new boat.
 
I've had a lot of similar cracks and damage to my drift boats from use and abuse. I've had pretty good luck with penetrating epoxy which is designed for this sort of thing. It's very common for the kind of damage you have to occur where fixtures and seats are mounted in the boats as they flex so much. I use that to seal the crack and prevent it from worsening under a glass over repair. Sometimes I don't have the luxury of doing a right proper job of repairing something and I've come up with some pretty interesting ways of keeping a boat on the river in a matter a few hours. The penetrating epoxy does of good job of locking the hair line cracks and then I would do as the others said as far as glassing. In the past I've used this and then sprayed 3M rubberized coating over the damage to seal it. I spent an entire fall with this nasty dinger on the right chine of my drifter. After the dust settled on the season it took lots of acetone and rags (and a chisel) to get that shit off but it worked and it cost me about $6 and 3 minutes of drying time. I'm not recommending that in this situation but it's a nifty trick if you're in a bind. Duct tape doesn't work that well ya know.

A bottle of Zap-A-Gap is one of the best quickie repair tools I've seen. I had an oar lock blow out and crack the side of my Hyde one time(long story)and in a pinch I took Z.A.G. which is my favorite cyanoacrylate super glue and squeezed it into the cracks until it wouldn't take anymore and then held the damage together. I waited about 10 minutes to be sure it was set...this was on the river. When I got home it was so solid that I took a piece of 400 grit and knocked the burrs off and hit it with some gray primer to blend it with the interior and used a navy blue Sharpie to blend the crack on the outside. I never had to fix it beyond that. It was solid as a rock the day I sold it. That's with a $3 tube of glue. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before here but it's a great trick and always keep some of it handy in my glass boats now.
 
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You can see the builder tabbed the two surfaces together with two layers of mat (GSM) and or mat and cloth (or roving) to create the kind of bond they wanted. I'm guessing it's two layers of mat.

The old way would be to grind the gel coat back to the height of the original tab on the vertical surfaces and cut the loose tab off at the corner. Once cleaned and scuffed then simply run two layers of matt back in place and finish as new. It can be a bit tricky when grinding as the hull is probably not real thick eh?

The new way would be as Jay suggests and glue it back together. I'd use something such as Plexis (sp?) as it reacts with the uncured resin that exists normally or an epoxy. Big thing with this method is getting it clean enough for a good bond.

What caused the problem. The presence of a release agent would screw up the glue method as it would be impossible to clean it properly. Cracking from excess weight would mean only surface dirt and dust would be present.

Eric
 
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