Horizontal crack in centerboard trunk

OldDog

New Member
Hi all,
After my last outing I noticed a hairline crack forming in my centerbord trunk. It runs horizontally about 3 inches down. I pushed it with my finger and it felt springy but I could not tell if it was gelcoat delaminating or a bona fide structural crack. With my fingertips I could lift up the upper surface of the crack so there was definitely loose material. I poked my hand through the access port and felt around the area from inside the hull. I could not feel any cracks or even weakness. I used a pen knife to lift up the delaminated gelcoat to see if the crack extended down into the fiberglass itself. As some of the flaky gelcoat chipped away I found what looked to be pristine and intact gelcoat beneath. The more I inspected I found that the crack appears to extend horizontally forward, around the forward radius of the slot and then partially down the other side. I question if this was there when I bought the boat and just spray painted over.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? I am wondering if is a joint where the upper deck met with hull during assembly? I had planned on layering additional glass around the trunk, working through the access port. Now I'm not sure that is necessary and I will just need to chip out the loose material and fill with epoxy. Or should i just do nothing? Any advice would be appreciated. The boat was built in 1990 and with the exception of this issue appears to be in very good shape. There is not even a lot of stress cracking in the hull.
 
If you can pick off pieces of gelcoat and underneath there is fresh shiny gel coat that is well adhered to the underlying laminate it could well be that they applied 2 layers of gelcoat ( called double gelling) and if the first has been left too long you can get poor adhesion between the 2 layers. I wouldn't worry about it ( unless you see the same problem on the hull outer gelcoat).
 
Hi all

Here are some pictures of the crack in by daggerboard trunk. When I chipped out some of the loose gelcoat there looks like another layer of gelcoat beneith. Anyone ever experience this?
 

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Hard to see from the pictures but the crack extends around the front radius of the trunk and down the other side, although not as sever. Again reaching through the inspection port I cannot feel any cracks from the inside.
 

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I can't be positive, but I think that is where the two pieces of hull were bonded together. They actually overlap, and there is just cosmetic filler there in most boats. I saw one boat with no filler at all and saw the overlap.
 
It is just filler that overlaps the joint from the top deck to the bottom deck.

Old boats (1971 to 1989) the joint was unfinished and visible, boats from 1990 to 2008 (starting with Pearson then SL and lastly Vanguard) they smoothed out the joint with filler to make a more finished joint (and made it more water tight) I think the newest boats they have gone back to the old style (correct me if I am wrong) as an overlap joint that is left unfinished
 
It is just filler that overlaps the joint from the top deck to the bottom deck.

Old boats (1971 to 1989) the joint was unfinished and visible, boats from 1990 to 2008 (starting with Pearson then SL and lastly Vanguard) they smoothed out the joint with filler to make a more finished joint (and made it more water tight) I think the newest boats they have gone back to the old style (correct me if I am wrong) as an overlap joint that is left unfinished

You are correct, (at least w/the new boats). Mine is a 98 Vanguard with nice finished trunk. Saw a new bot this weekend and it had the unfinished deck/hull joint in the trunk. Looks like the builder ran a bead of caulk around the joint.
 
hi everyone,

That's great news. I suspected that was the joint between the hull and the deck just wanted to make sure. Thanks for getting back to me everone.
 

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