Fiberglass repair

[Guest]

I recently bought a DS II which has chips in the fiberglass both inside and outside the boat, nothing major. To repair these I plan to use polyester resin and gel coat. However there is a 1.5'' crack in the
top of the cuddy by the hole through which the mast passes. I'm not sure how best to repair this.
Would polyester resin be strong enough to bond the crack? Or would an epoxy like the West system
be better?

Rick Dennis (dennisrl-at-us.ibm.com)

[Guest]

When in doubt I always use epoxy. The location that you need to repair should be as strong as possible-there's a lot of flexing going on when you step on the cuddy & when lines are tightened. Polyester may hold (probably will) but why take that chance- You don't want to have to redo this job in a year or two, do you? Epoxy & a 4-6 inch taped double layer matrix of good 6-9 oz. glass on bottom & single layer on top WILL hold.

Lynn Larremore (elynna1141-at-aol.xom)

[Guest]

If a wood core to glass repair is added you can greatly increase the strength of the repair with fewer layers, keeping weight low. Consider a chanel cross section to the repair glass (tape) bandage instead of a two dimentional, flat bandage.

At the point you are talking about you need strength!! Bulk up the patch with a 1x1 of at least 8" crossing the crack in at least two places for a 6" crack, three for a 12", etc...

I needed to beef up a weak CB trunk and so braced it at the joint to the hull (through the inspection ports) with a glass wraped white oak 2x2 on each port and starboard. So far no flexing. Added about 20lbs. to the boat, but them I don't race.

MAKurtis (Emak41-at-excite.com)