Repair & maintenance: Bow repairs

Print Page | Close Window

Bow repairs

Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Repair & maintenance
Forum Discription: Questions & tips on the subject
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5451
Printed Date: 14 May 25 at 9:45pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.665y - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Bow repairs

Posted By: ASok
Subject: Bow repairs
Date Posted: 27 Apr 09 at 1:28pm

Ok firstly please forgive my ignorance on this. My general repairs have been limited to a refurb of an old wooden hornet and some light issues with gel coat.

However, bow on dart meets pontoon and causes damage to the leading edge. Bit of a mess and a hole circa 1-2cm. Cleaning thehole to remove fragments, I can now see the inner 'skin' (excuse ignorance of terminology) of the hull. There seems to be a slight gap between the outer gel coat and inner part of the hull.

I'm now looking to make some repairs over the weekend and wanted some advice. Can this be filled with your normal 'plastic padding' type stuff? i.e. I mix some up and wedge it in the hole to then sand it off nice and smooth?

Or do I need a gap filling type compound to help it bond?

Or do I need to do something more significant?

Any help gratefully recieved.

Thanks

Replies:

Posted By: winging it
Date Posted: 27 Apr 09 at 4:37pm

We need to know how deep the hole is. If it is a matter of mm and you have merely scraped off the gel coat then you can replace it with gel coat. If the hole is deeper then I would fill it with epoxy puffed up by micro balloons, sand that off a tad, then skim it over with gel coat.

-------------
the same, but different...

Posted By: English Dave
Date Posted: 27 Apr 09 at 5:19pm

Jeez, you have been in the wars! Just put a reply on
your trolley thread.

If you can see the fibre mesh but not through it (ie
ding rather than actual penetration) then you may be
able to fix it with gelcoat filler (plastic padding
makes it and it comes in largish tubes with a small
amount of catalyst). The white may not be just the same
as the white of your Dart (assuming it's not yellow) but
it depends how much perfection you are after.

Mix up the GC filler and squeeze it all into the wound.
Then sand and polish. The last bit do with "wet" wet and
dry (fine as you can get). Probably take you an hour on
a warm afternoon.

If you can find another D18 it is inevitable that he/she
will have done this before. The bows on a Dart are
notoriously fragile so the first time you do this will
not be your last.

-------------
English Dave
http://www.ballyholme.com - Ballyholme Yacht Club

(You'd think I'd be better at it by now)

Hurricane 5.9 SX
RS700

Posted By: ASok
Date Posted: 27 Apr 09 at 7:33pm

Cheers for the info.

The hole is pretty deep, but it sounds like the micro balloons will help fill the gap. Then it sounds like sanding fun for the afternoon.

Fingers crossed for a nice day soon then.

-------------

Posted By: Scooby_simon
Date Posted: 27 Apr 09 at 11:26pm

A Sok.

Can you get a screwdriver into the hole and move the sides of the hull that are bonded? Have you "split the seam" ot made a puncture in the bow - they need to be treated in different ways.

1, If you have spilt the seam, you nead to clean it all out with a hack saw back to CLEAN matting and gel, this will look painfull but will give you a STRUCTUARAL bond when complete

2, If just a puncture and the rest of the seam is OK then just filling it should be OK.

Can you take some pictures and attach them here? I've seen "bodged" bow repairs leak like crazy!

-------------
Wanna learn to Ski - PM me..