Repair to edges of fiberglass deck

[jsimmons248]

I recently purchased a 1992 Sunfish hull that has the deck 'rolled' over the chine rather than the metal rub rail my older hull had.

The hull is in good shape except for where the edges of the deck are chipped and gouged, probably from collisions with other Sunfish during racing in a past life.

If anyone has had similar damage and has come up with a good method of repair I would appreciate any information.

I assume some sort of bondo type material or filled epoxy will be necessary to fill in the gouges.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Wayne]

I recently purchased a 1992 Sunfish ... The hull is in good shape except for where the edges of the deck are chipped and gouged...

The name "Bondo" can be a little confusing. To us old timers, Bondo was the brand name of an autobody dent filler putty that, often due to improper application, got a bad reputation. Today, Bondo is one of the 3M brands and covers a whole line of polyester resin based repair products including their marine "Boatyard" line so simply saying Bondo is still somewhat ambiguous.

Here's the anatomy of the hull to deck joint area of your boat:

Click image to enlarge, then click on the plus (+) in the upper left to enlarge even further
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Chips in the gelcoat that don't reach into the glass fabric can be cleaned, sanded, and filled with a gelcoat paste.

Gouges that take a bite out of the underlying glass fabric need to be filled with a reinforced resin (polyester or epoxy + reinforcing filler**), then topped with gelcoat. {if you use an epoxy, be sure to clean away any amine blush after it's cured so the gelcoat will adhere}
** the type of filler {collodial silica, milled glass fiber, or pieces of glass fabric} depend on the size of the damaged area.

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[ajleger]

The edges of the rail chip very easily and trying to match gelcoat can be difficult. One alternative is to cover it with a vinyl rub rail. Torresen sells a rub rail made specifically for the Sunfish. It's a 30' gray vinyl rub rail selling for $87.50 - Sunfish part no. 50048. You attach it with 5200 or silicon. It serves not only to hide dings, but it also helps protect the rail from further damage. I just ordered one myself this past week, so I can't tell you much about how it looks or how well it protects or how well it holds up, but I figurerd it was better than trying to match gelcoat, appears to be a quick and easy fix, and should offer some protection.

 

[Wavedancer]

Vinyl rubrail does protect against chipping the gelcoat when the hull 'touches' the dock.
But I must admit that some of my 'touches' were more like bangs;

You may save some money by not covering the aft part of the hull. At least that was true for me when similar rubrail was sold by the foot.

 

[CJS]

I, too, have encountered chipping to the edges of my '09 Sunfish. Thanks to ajleger, I ordered and installed the gray rub rail from Torreson Marine. Wow! What a difference! It took me about a half-hour to figure out just how to push it into place without getting silicon all over me, the boat, and driveway. But, once installed, it looks great.

To share my installation experience, I first thought I would dry fit the rub rail to see how it looked and make sure I had sufficient length. That didn't even work for me as I was unable to keep the U-shaped rail open to slip it over the deck edge. What did work was to apply silicon two to three feet at a time into the groove, feed the rub rail firmly up toward the deck edge with one hand, and use the heel of the other hand to push to rail into place. Amazingly, the silicon acted as a lubricant allowing the rail to slip on. Even sharp bends at the bow and stern were no problem, but I did use duct tape in a couple of locations to secure the rail until the silicon set. I had about 8" of excess rub rail to trim off.

Now I'm a much happier sailor.