Found this fun post and photo today from a few years back, educational:
Fun photo I found in the Yahoo files, kind of a good look at the anatomy of fiberglass and gelcoat. The hulls are made by spraying gelcoat into the female mold that was first coated with a release agent, it is king of like hard, thick paint. That is the crusty blue stuff in this photo. Then fiberglass cloth is laid on the inside of the gelcoat and it was wet out with polyester resin. The resin is the brown stuff coating the cloth. On this boat a lot of the resin has ablated off, leaving fuzzy cloth. The fiberglass and cloth should have a clear appearance, if they are cloudy, then that are has been crushed and the resin is fractured away from the cloth. So a lot of time the gelcoat can be repaired without messing with the fiberglass. If the fiberglass is crushed or degraded to the fuzzy cloth stage, then the fiberglass needs to be repairs as well.
So the fiberglass is what floats the boat, and the gelcoat is there to protect the fiberglass and make the boat look pretty. Gelcoat is basically thick paint with UV stabilizers, that is why we use marine grade paint vs gelcoat on all of our restorations. Keep in mind most of our resto boats we found, were still around only because people were too lazy to take them to the dump. One boat actually came FROM the dump.
Gelcoat repairs would be the way to go if a repair area is small and/or folks have the right tools/materials/skills to effect the repair and match the current gelcoat color. Alan tells me that small areas can be brushed on, sanded and buffed. We've never tried it.
Racers can let us know if a gelcoat boat sails faster than a paint boat. In the meantime, we know for recreational sailing there is no difference.
Fun photo I found in the Yahoo files, kind of a good look at the anatomy of fiberglass and gelcoat. The hulls are made by spraying gelcoat into the female mold that was first coated with a release agent, it is king of like hard, thick paint. That is the crusty blue stuff in this photo. Then fiberglass cloth is laid on the inside of the gelcoat and it was wet out with polyester resin. The resin is the brown stuff coating the cloth. On this boat a lot of the resin has ablated off, leaving fuzzy cloth. The fiberglass and cloth should have a clear appearance, if they are cloudy, then that are has been crushed and the resin is fractured away from the cloth. So a lot of time the gelcoat can be repaired without messing with the fiberglass. If the fiberglass is crushed or degraded to the fuzzy cloth stage, then the fiberglass needs to be repairs as well.
So the fiberglass is what floats the boat, and the gelcoat is there to protect the fiberglass and make the boat look pretty. Gelcoat is basically thick paint with UV stabilizers, that is why we use marine grade paint vs gelcoat on all of our restorations. Keep in mind most of our resto boats we found, were still around only because people were too lazy to take them to the dump. One boat actually came FROM the dump.
Gelcoat repairs would be the way to go if a repair area is small and/or folks have the right tools/materials/skills to effect the repair and match the current gelcoat color. Alan tells me that small areas can be brushed on, sanded and buffed. We've never tried it.
Racers can let us know if a gelcoat boat sails faster than a paint boat. In the meantime, we know for recreational sailing there is no difference.