Assessing the damage

Posted on by David

To get a clear idea of what needed to be fixed I had to mostly strip the boat of it’s hardware. After removing the seat and back, I took out the foam bulkheads. One of the cracks had extended forward into the hatch area.

Flex Tape held up pretty well. I had to use heat to soften the glue otherwise it wasn’t coming out willingly.
View from the bow looking back into cockpit
Looking forward into the hold. Note the crack running bottom to top to the left of the decorative lattice as well as the crack running along the seam following the keel. That crack extended four feet. It wasn’t like the glue holding the planks gave out. Further up the crack it crossed over the plank splitting up the middle.

The only way to repair it properly was to remove the broken fiberglass and epoxy, glue and replace the broken wood then apply new fiberglass and epoxy.

I marked out the damaged area with a Sharpie then tape to make sure I got all the damaged areas.

Notice the AF18 photobombing the shot. I could almost hear a voice saying, “Fix me, fix me too”

The best way to lift the fiberglass is to use heat. And it worked.
Ouch after all that careful work.
I must admit it looked terrible when I got all the cloth removed. I used 60 grit sandpaper to remove the residual.

Next comes the actual wood repair.

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