hull Damage question

[stanleyjacobs]

I just bought this this Oday DSII Hull number 12825.
It was very dirty. After I cleaned it up I found the damage shown in the pictures.

Other than that the boat is in great shape.

Do I need to repair this before using it this fall?? it is above the waterline and not through the hull.

Also, when I do repair it, do I really need to grind this area down completely through the outer hull to repair/patch??

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[Peterw11]

If there's no obvious cracks on the inside of the hull, at that same spot, I'd say the damage is probably just cosmetic. It looks like it's only the gelcoat that has damege.

If that's the case, you can sail it forever and you shouldn't have a problem.

There are a number of ways to repair the gelcoat. Search the forums and you'll find the info.

[stanleyjacobs]

Thank you for the reply. Thats great information. I guess I will need to cut an inspection port for that which i may need anyway if I do need to fix it. Thank you

[GreenLake]

What I see on the picture is a circular area where the gelcoat is cracked, with the big gash in the center. I would interpret this not as a scratch but as a sign of a pretty strong impact at that location. The probability that the laminate was weakened there seems high to me, because in order for the gelcoat to crack like this, the laminate would have had to deform quite a bit, I would think. (You could try pushing on it to see whether you can tell whether that spot is softer than the surrounding).

It might still be OK to take it out on the water a few times (impossible to judge that remotely) but I wouldn't think you should defer a repair indefinitely.

When you do the repair, you need to grind away damaged material. After you've removed the cracked gelcoat, you should be able to get a better idea of the extent of the damage to the laminate. If you wet out the surface with water or alcohol it helps you see through the rough surface that you created by grinding. That should allow you to identify how much laminate you need to remove.

Around the damaged areas, you need to grind a shallow (1 in 12) bevel. That will remove more material. Once you've reached that point, you can decide on the best strategy to add new laminate. There's a wealth of information here on the forum, there are a number of good books, and West System publishes a useful guide for making such repairs as well.

(Not all techniques require access from the inside of the hull.)

Finally, when you are ready to make the repair come back here with more questions / reports and you'll get an instant cheering section

[K.C. Walker]

I think I'd have to go along with GreenLake. It does look to me like there was some pretty serious impact damage. If the other side of this damage is a flotation tank I'd be worried about its integrity. As Greenlake mentioned there are ways to repair this kind of damage without having to cut an inspection port. An excellent repair manual that is available online is this one http://www.westsystem.com/ss/assets/How ... enance.pdf . Even if you do not do the repairs yourself it gives you an idea of how they are done.

KC

[Peterw11]

Stanley:

Upon revisiting the pictures, I have to stand by my original post. It looks like gelcoat damage, but even using the close up feature on my computer, I don't see any broken fiberglass or exposed threads.

I deal in some fiberglass products with my company, and the most obvious indicator of structural damage is torn or broken threads in the fiberglass cloth itself. The gelcoat is just a cosmetic "shell" which is applied to the mold to add color and to hide the threads or rovings in the fiberglass material. It adds no strength or structural integrity.

Also, gelcoat by nature is rather brittle, like an eggshell, if you will. It's not hard to damage it enough for it to crack. All you have to do is hit it moderately hard, even with a blunt object and it'll crack and flake off.
Bouncing the boat off a piling at the dock will do it easily enough.

That being the case, and the fact that the damage is above the waterline, I'd suggest you take your new acquisition out and get it wet. Even if there was a hole in the fiberglass, it's highly unlikely water could enter the boat, unless you plan on spending a lot of time with the boat heeled over enough to allow water to leak in. If you're heeled that far, you're probably about to capsize, anyway.

A highly unlikely scenario, IMO.

And if you do start to take in water at the impact location, well, that'll tell you all you need to know. Any water intrusion is more likely from the CB trunk, anyway. Especially on a DS2.

Whatever the case, the damage can be repaired fairly easily.

It's mid August. The summer (such as it is) will be over before you know it. Go sailing and have fun.

Time's a-wasting.

[stanleyjacobs]

Thank you all

The bottom line is it needs to be fixed, right?! However, being that it isn't through the hull and above the waterline, I think i will have some fun first!!

[GreenLake]

The bottom line: it does need to be fixed. And only when you've removed the cracked gelcoat will you really know the state of the laminate underneath. (All else is guesswork, as far as I am concerned).

Is it safe to have some fun first? Only you can decide that.

You can always carefullly grind away the damaged gelcoat, starting near the gash (unless someone else has a better idea, I would suggest an orbital sander with 24 grit). That should allow you to actually see whether there's deeper damage or not. I would think that removing already damaged gelcoat by itself should not affect the question of whether you can sail the boat as is a few times, but should allow you to make a better assessment.

Would a repair keep the boat stranded till the end of the summer? Depends on where you are sailing, but the basic repair should not take more than a weekend, or several nights.

The most time consuming part, which you don't want to rush is the restoration of the outer surface. Grinding away damaged material and putting on a patch (if needed) shouldn't take that long.

Once you know the laminate is sound, or once you have restored it to soundness with a patch, I can't see how postponing the surface treatment for a few weeks (above the waterline on a boat sailed dry) should be of any concern. (Expoxy shouldn't be exposed to UV for too long).

Just make sure you don't postpone your repairs to where the temperatures drop below the minimum required for the resin to cure. For most epoxies you'd want to stay above 65F.