Lakeland Phantom
New Member
I’m in the middle of refurbishing a Phantom sailboat (very similar to Sunfish). I’ve reattached a separating hull/deck with marine-tex and the repair went very well, but the 5-min set sure goes fast!
Next I put in an inspection port to get a look at the inside of some hull damage. I was pleased to find that the crack did not go the whole way through. The damage is not visible on the inside but outside is about 2 inches on the side wrapping over to about 1 inch on the bottom. I’m planning to grind away the damage plus a couple inches around the damage and repair with a layer of glass and epoxy resin. (I understand that I won’t be able to gelcoat over top) The hull is so thin that I can only imagine getting 1 layer of woven glass. Is that enough?
Also, I’ve read that epoxy resin is harder to sand than typical fiberglass resin, but some brands are easier than others. Can anyone recommend a brand that is good for providing a good sandable surface? I'm hoping to use the same resin to fill in some scratches on the bottom. For now I don’t plan to paint the hull so I don’t need the fix to be too pretty, but I hope to paint in the future and I want to be able to get a reasonable looking fix. I want to sand the fixes flush with the old surface, but I'm worried about the epoxy beind harder than the gelcoat and having trouble tapering the fix in.
I have some books on fiberglass repair that have been very helpful, but they are focused on larger boats. I just need a reality check on repairs to a thinner hull. There seems to be less margin for error!
I found the inside of the boat to be very dry. The water I drained out of the split lip must have just been rain water. I did find some broken styrofoam though. It is attached to the top and bottom, but split in the middle in places. Does anyone have experience with this fix? I’m thinking of getting some of the expanding foam used to attach the blocking and try to do the fix with that. Does that make sense?
Next I put in an inspection port to get a look at the inside of some hull damage. I was pleased to find that the crack did not go the whole way through. The damage is not visible on the inside but outside is about 2 inches on the side wrapping over to about 1 inch on the bottom. I’m planning to grind away the damage plus a couple inches around the damage and repair with a layer of glass and epoxy resin. (I understand that I won’t be able to gelcoat over top) The hull is so thin that I can only imagine getting 1 layer of woven glass. Is that enough?
Also, I’ve read that epoxy resin is harder to sand than typical fiberglass resin, but some brands are easier than others. Can anyone recommend a brand that is good for providing a good sandable surface? I'm hoping to use the same resin to fill in some scratches on the bottom. For now I don’t plan to paint the hull so I don’t need the fix to be too pretty, but I hope to paint in the future and I want to be able to get a reasonable looking fix. I want to sand the fixes flush with the old surface, but I'm worried about the epoxy beind harder than the gelcoat and having trouble tapering the fix in.
I have some books on fiberglass repair that have been very helpful, but they are focused on larger boats. I just need a reality check on repairs to a thinner hull. There seems to be less margin for error!
I found the inside of the boat to be very dry. The water I drained out of the split lip must have just been rain water. I did find some broken styrofoam though. It is attached to the top and bottom, but split in the middle in places. Does anyone have experience with this fix? I’m thinking of getting some of the expanding foam used to attach the blocking and try to do the fix with that. Does that make sense?