Hi all,

My girfriend has recently bought an older laser for her to learn how to single hand in, as up till now we have alsways sailed together.

However she would like to re finish the boat, now what I amw ondering is what is the best thing to do, the gelcoat is chipped.scratched in lots of places and only 50-60% (as a guess) undamaged.  If possible she would like to change the colour (women), but are we best to repair the gelcoat where damaged or snad the whole hull down and repaint with some top notch two pack paint?? or can we get the entire boat given a new gelcoat.

I have only previously owned and maintained wooden boats, so all advice is much appreciated.

Adam

Re-gelcoating the entire hull is certainly not practical. It may not even be possible. GRP boats are built "outside-in", ie the GC is the first thing that goes into the mould and then everything else follows.

Any old Laser is bound to have a few scrapes here and there. If you really, really want to do this, then I would ignore the scratches, repair the chips (with GC filler) then sand and paint. I don't know how durable two-pack paint is - the Laser hull tends to flex a bit.

But if the damage is only cosmetic and this is your girlfriend's first Single-hand boat, I would leave well alone and think of this Laser as a stepping stone to a slighly smarter one as she progresses.

English Dave once again speaks the truth.

Boats can be resprayed with Gelcoat. AW did my first tornado for me, I think he swore he would never do it again though. Added to that to keep the costs down I said I would flat it back to get it smooth. I too have sworn never to do it again.

Lasers can be painted but is it really worth it???

I am in a similar situation, looking to buy a cheap laser for the girlfriend to improve with. She's already been told not to worry about how it looks and when she gets better she can have a new one.