Crack repair

[85 kingfisher]

Went fishing yesterday in a 30mph wind, had fun till I hit a tree. I wasn't going very fast at all just putting along through the brush the back end hit a stump which swung the front end into a tree head on. Put a multiple cracks in the topcap at the nose. I've already started grinding a bit of material away from the damaged area to repair, but thought it might be a good idea to get some advice from you guys before going any further. here are some pics.








Modified by 85 kingfisher at 4:56 PM 4/26/2009

[85 kingfisher]

got impatient and went ahead and did my best to fix it. hopefully it will hold, I'm just going to temporarily paint it with some colormatch paint to make it until winter when I can sand off the paint and fix it correctly. I live 30 miles from lake fork and don't want to be out of commission during the season.

I used about 8 layers of some really thin fiberglass cloth I had laying around and fiberglass resin I got at autozone.

[ProcraftMike]

Looks good. That should get you through the summer. Any damage below the rub rail?

Can you get at the repaired area from below the deck as well? For a long term repair, I would approach the repair from both inside and outside of the hull. I think it would be stronger that way.

[85 kingfisher]

no cracks below the rubrail so I should be watertight. I agree that it would be good to repair it from the inside but I can just barely touch it with my fingertip from the storage bin. the top cap will have to come off, I was planning that this winter anyway to replace the floor and extend the front deck.

The impact did not knock off the rubrail, I took enough scews out to get it loose and out of the way.

[turkdaddy]

Man that sux I hope you get it fixed this winter.

[85 kingfisher]

I have kinda an odd Idea- the gel coat on the nose is pretty rough, the rest is in fairly good shape. I'm thinking about pulling the cap, re-inforcing the repair from the inside (alot of other things planned while the cap is off.

But for the odd one, I'm considering rhino-lining the nose. i.e. don't have to worry about gel-coat repair and it should be a bit tougher. I fish in the trees and brush on cooper lake and lake fork, the nose of every boat I've had takes a beating.