My Son just bought a catamaran prindle 16 sailboat and it has a few small cracks in it from crashing against a sea-wall durring a storm and want to fix it ourself. Can anyone help us with what we need to do and materials needed.

[This message has been edited by Hardtop (edited 07-22-2002).]

Try http://www.autobodystore.com/cgi-bin/config.pl?index

the main thing i can say is dont just try to fill any cracks. you need to have a few inches of overlaping fiber mesh to a good bonding surface so the crack will not be reopened.

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If you have never done fiberglass work before, i wouldn't try anything other than a quick fix, a patchover and some good epoxy.
try www.fiberglast.com (http://www.fiberglast.com) for some good info

Just watch it - those small cracks may just look cosmetic, but sometimes they spiderweb under the gell coat and are even worse on the inside.

This is comming from a Sailing instructor who deals with small boats and all the damages done to them by the rocky Long Island Sound.

-Ryan

Actually, boat repair is sometimes pretty specialized. The damage area would have to be cleaned out and a proper repair installed. This will probably call for a vacuum bag repair, where they apply multiple layers of fiberglass against a solid backing and then seal the surrounding area so the repair material can be sucked down with vacuum. This does two things. It sucks all the air out of the repair because trapped air bubbles can weaken the repair. And it flattens the repair out and makes it conform to the surrounding contour.
This is how it's done in aircraft composite repair. Boat repair really isn't much different.

Any chance you can post some pics??

Go to Boat/US site they have the West Marine fiberglass repair guide ,about $5, West makes fiberglass repair products, its a good start and will show some of the finer details of plastic boat repair http://www.boatus-store.com/icatalog/C332.asp
Lou
28 Ft Rinker Fiesta Vee

[This message has been edited by Delanson350 (edited 07-26-2002).]

Thanks guys, sounds like it's not going to be easy. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/frown.gif