Oops! Fiberglass Hull Repair Question.

[JayB]

Made a boneheaded mistake on the way to the water today and wound up with a nice little puncture/crack just under the waterline.

The official Whaler repair guide suggests a pretty involved repair that requires cutting out the fiberglass around the damage, removing a thin layer of foam from beneath the cut and securing fiberglass fabric underneath, etc, etc, etc

I'm planning on taking that on as a winter project but for the time being I'm thinking/hoping I could do a quick repair to get back on the water in a couple of days. I was thinking I'd just sand the area down with a 36-grit grinding disk, taper proud side of the crack, apply a couple of thin coats of the "Tiger Hair" fiberglass-infused Bondo stuff, sand it down with ~80 grit, then apply a layer of MarineTex epoxy over that and it'd get me through September at least.

Any thoughts from the brain trust? FWIW the crack is about ~3" long.

 

[Buzzy]

If this was my boat, I'd do just about what you suggest. I bought a boat from my brother after he'd dumped it off a trailer. There was a pretty good hole in the hull and a crack about 18" long. I pulled the motors off and managed to hoist the boat and flip it over. The repair was barely noticeable and served me well for seven years (sold it then).

 

[East Coaster]

You can build a whole boat out of this stuff - your little ding should be a piece of cake.....

 

[mickey rat]

I'd do a temporary patch with something like this. Epoxy under the waterline.

Amazon product ASIN B007D2QV5Q

 

[JayB]

Thanks for the suggestions. Think I'll go with the "All of the Above" approach and do the quick and dirty repair first and follow with the textbook repair in October! That kit looks like a great option for the latter of the two options.

 

[SurfnFish]

Have repaired dings (and a crushed bow) in several Whalers...the factory reccomends digging out the foam because it is a sponge...if it didn't go ito the water absolutely no need to replace the foam...easy fix - clean up the ding, sand lightly 4" out from the edges of it..Bondo the ding...mix up epoxy resin with white pigment, lay a 12oz fibreglass patch over the ding that extends 2" past the edges, lay another patch down that extends 4", feather sand, tape off, brush on a light epoxy overcoat...done

 

[kmudgn]

 

[Nomad57]

If you’re not comfortable doing it yourself and you’re close to Bellingham, Performance Fiberglass can take care of that and color match. I do a lot of work with them not just boats and their prices are very reasonable along with turnaround. I had chine repair in and out in 4 days!

 

[dirty dog]

I used to work for Marlin boats down in White City, OR
Ya you can do the quicky patch like you said.
But don't put off doing the hard core repair like the book said as soon as possible.
You could still have a little water leak into your quicky repair and that will/could cause rotting, esp. if you keep the boat in the water a lot.
Remember to work in a well ventilated area.
We always had a couple guys hanging out when one of us bound the deck to the hull. The last word was help, and we would drag the guy out and have an oxygen tank ready.
Lots of fun building boats

 

[SurfnFish]

But don't put off doing the hard core repair like the book said as soon as possible.
You could still have a little water leak into your quicky repair and that will/could cause rotting, esp. if you keep the boat in the water a lot.

X2...and older Whalers are notorious for sucking in water on any crack or hole, which can become a BFD..better to completely watertight the repair now, can always bring to a shop to cosmetically perfect later

 

[Jim in Anacortes]

One option would be to buy a $70 can off Splash Zone. It's a "putty". Mix the two parts together, make a big ugly patch with a putty knife, and go fishing. You can then fix it "right and purdy" whenever.....or leave it like that for a couple years.

 

[Jim in Anacortes]

Splash Zone will (I guarantee), seal the hull from water getting into the foam. Once dry, it can be sanded and painted. That patch will be good for at least a few years. When it comes time to repair it with fiberglass ...I would humbly suggest taking it to a shop. I've done enough fiberglass work to know, the pros are much better at it then I could ever be.

 

[Grayone]

Make sure you use a marine filler and not an automotive filler.

 

[Jim in Anacortes]

Mixing resin, adding color, choosing fillers, choosing cloth, sanding itchy fiberglass, hoping the resin sets off, but not too quickly, wondering if you actually stopped all leakage, hoping it bonds to the hull, giant mess of gloves and brushes,, etc Arggggg just spread a good healthy amount of Splash Zone over the gash and sand it up a bit the next day. All that Splash Zone can be easily removed and the damage can be professionally repaired when the time comes.

 

[Jim in Anacortes]

This is what Splash Zone was designed to do. It is a very unique product used in marine hull repair. It actually will harden underwater! No other product does this. $70 is the cheapest two part set...but it will last for decades. I like to have some on board in case I were to hit a rock or log and puncture the hull. Just, mix some up and jump in the water and plug the hole. It even "sticks" to aluminum (even when applied underwater).