Aground

[Renae]

They say that there are two types of sailors--those who have run aground and dirty rotten liars.  My folks didn't raise no perjurer.

Apparently there is at least one rock in the shallow channel out of my launching bay, and I found it at about 2 knots.  I'm pretty sick about it, although I was already able to jack the boat a couple of inches off the keel roller to get a look at the impact and it looks pretty limited.



You're looking at the front of the shoal keel.  I'm guessing this sort of impact isn't horribly uncommon, but it I feel like I just punched one of my kids in the nose.

The sole appears to be of some flat material and you can see fiberglass cloth layers feathered up to it, tapering into the flat bottom.  It doesn't look like I got deeply into these layers, or indeed much at all.  The gelcoat thickness there seems to be almost negligible, unfortunately, and I'm clearly through that.

Now I've got a repair to plan, guided by the following principles:

1.  I have a dry bilge and it's gonna dang well stay that way.  (It stayed dry today, even though it was another 30 submerged minutes before I was on the trailer.)
2.  I'm going to be back on the water next week.
3.  I know the community here will steer me right.

That's my sad tale.  Please help a girl out.

[crazycarl]

I hit some rocks and chipped the gelcoat off the leading edge of the keel soon after paying to have the bottom sanded, barrier coated, and new bottom paint applied so I know how you feel.  Pint cans of gelcoat are available, but a good marine epoxy like West Systems will fix it right up. 

[bruce]

I'm with Carl, grind back the damage to solid glass and build up with glass and epoxy. Epoxy will wick into porous areas, but it's hard to judge how effectively, so best not to rely on it consolidating soft, delaminated areas.

Gelcoat is brittle compared to epoxy, and doesn't adhere as well (same with laminating polyesters and vinyl esters in general). Often it's only eggshell thick, better thought of as a finish rather than a structural component. I've had good luck with gelcoat provided by Com-Pac, the color matched very well on a newer boat. Color matching can be difficult. You can get a perfect match, especially if sprayed on, but fortunately that isn't really critical here. You can add pigment to epoxy as well. Epoxies do tend to yellow over time, could shift the color, but it might be close enough. Paint would be the easiest, just the shoal keel if you don't need a full bottom job. Easily renewed if you found additional obstacles. Color match isn't critical, it's a decorative element!

The photo doesn't display, but I'm guessing access on the trailer isn't good.

[Renae]

The photo doesn't display, but I'm guessing access on the trailer isn't good.

The photo shows the keel jacked up about 1-2" above the keel roller.  Access is good enough if I'm just sanding and laying on Marine Tex.  If I have to lay on glass, it might not be adequate enough.  For painting the bottom, it's not good at all.  I'm at peace with bad bottom paint for the most part.  I'm dry sailing in freshwater lakes.  Roger previously painted the bottom (for cosmetic effect, he told me), but I'm guessing he did it on the trailer, as it's a bit inconsistent.

But back to the heart of the issue--you think I'm going to be laying glass here?

[brackish]

Hard to tell without the pic showing.  But what Bruce said.  It is on the keel right? feather it out a bit and build it up glass/epoxy.  No need for gelcoat it is polyester and not osmosis proof.  If you are barrier coated, blend the epoxy repair into the barrier coat and touch up the bottom paint. Try to do the epoxy work leaving no layer going to full cure, will come out a little stronger that way.

[bruce]

If it just a surface scuff, and little glass is disturbed, then probably no glass is needed. Just don't fill a significant void with epoxy, it may stick for now but it can loosen and allow water in. Layers of glass and epoxy as Brackish describes, feathered onto sound material. The glass gives it the strength.

Try another photo if you can, or send one to my email and I'll post it. We'll do our best to steer you right.

[Renae]

I called Hutchins today.  Unsurprisingly, given that they are fulled equipped and skilled in the building of fiberglass boats, they said they would reglass and gelcoat the boat.

West Marine would have been fine selling me the fiberglass setup, but given other factors (below), they recommended Marine Tex.

The particulars:

1.  The depth of the scuff is small--mostly just the thickness of the gelcoat.
2.  It is not in a highly visible area.
3.  The bottom is painted (rather haphazardly, as the PO told me he couldn't fully get under the boat, so he sanded what he could, and painted somewhat blind with a Menards product).
4.  The boat is nearly 20 years old.
5.  There are previous epoxy repairs evident.
6.  It's far from the weakest link in the chain.

And most of all:

7.  It's inexpensive, hard to mess up, and will do the job (keeping the boat dry) effectively in 2 days. 

I will be back on the lake on Monday when the ramps decongest.

[Renae]

It was a fairly active weekend, but true to my word, I was back on the water on Monday afternoon.

I got two coats of MarineTex down with ample curing time in between.  Honestly, one would have probably sufficed.  The repair feels very solid, to the point of being somewhat difficult to sand down.  I read comments to this effect and deliberately tried to smooth it out.

In retrospect there wasn't much reason to get angsty about the MarineTex vs fiberglass question.  I opted for the former because a) post initial sanding, it was clear that previous owners had done repairs with something like MT and b) I was working in a pretty narrow space, with the front of the boat jacked only 1" or so above the keel roller to fully expose the scuff.

Anyway, it worked, and the repair seemed solid even after rolling the keel onto the trailer after 6 hours on the water.  The keel is bone dry as always.

[curtisv]

Glad it worked.  I'm more a fan of West Systems.  Since there was previous epoxy and since you will be bottom painting epoxy makes the most sense.  Gelcoat is hard to get right.  Epoxy is a nice hard surface though still not something to bounce off rocks with.  We have lots of rocks and a few of the more popular ones to hit are unofficially named.