Bow Handle Repair

Jonva

Floater
Hi, I'm working on an 81 Sunfish that needs some repairs to the bow handle where the boat was dropped and pushed the handle through the fiberglass and other minor repairs. I'll post photos as I go. I'm hoping to preserve and reuse the block under the handle if I can, but I'll roll with the punches once I dig in.
 

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I've done some grinding this weekend but still haven't cleared away enough material to get a good look at the backing block under the handle. More work to come on that. In the meantime I've cut an inspection port in the cockpit so that I can mount a fan to run over the winter. We weighed the boat this fall and it was about 155 lbs so we've got some weight to lose this winter. This will be my first round of fiberglass repair so I'm expecting that part to be a slow struggle. Sadly, I spent a disgusting amount of money at West Marine on Marine Tex, a fiberglass repair kit, gelcoat, acetone and filler. Nothing feels so good as finding acetone for $7 at Home Depot after you've bought it for $20 elsewhere.
 

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West Marine is a pretty store with lots of good things. That being said, Home Depot sells Polyester Resin, cloth and acetone at a fraction of the price at West Marine.
Richard
 
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So this project has been moving along slowy... Since spring I've managed remove all of the damaged material, fiberglass the hole and I added some filler to flatten out the area. I can't find my glassing photos, but here are my photos of the area that I filled and sanded today. That first photo is the repair I did with filler to the crack on the rim of the cockpit.
 

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Ah ha, I found the rest of my photos. Here is the fiberglass work (my first ever). I added about 7 or so layers in concentric circles, then ground away the excess. IMG_0747.JPGIMG_0743.JPGIMG_0744.JPGIMG_0745.JPGIMG_0746.JPG
I used the backing block as the support for the fiberglass when I lay it down on the hull.
 
Nice job! Congrats. That is a nicely done project. I'm looking forward to seeing the final result.

I would like to order a Stainless Bow handle. I saw a lot of them a few year ago. But none recently.


Unfortunately, I have to do a bow handle repair on one of my boats, DIXIE, damaged over the winter. We had massive snows. I am not sure if it was damaged when I brother moved it--he is not gentle, or from the weight of snow and ice. This will be the last year these will be outside unprotected.
 
As I noted in the paint versus gelcoat thread, I apparently got a bad batch of gelcoat. I managed to slather some of the cottage cheese substance on most of the areas. The area for this repair is the worst and I think I'm going to remove it and try again. I was more successful covering some bare spots on my laser and on the area by the cockpit. The tub full of cottage cheese I created doesn't look as dramitic here as it was in real life (a four inch heap). I'll try to get a good batch next time I'm in the neighborhood of the boat store.
 

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Believe it or not I did manage to get a layer of gelcoat onto the bow and finish off this project and get the boat back to my sister before the summer started. It just took me four months to post any photos. I'm not 100% happy with the looks. It doesn't match and is also a bit splotchy, so I might try to pretty it up the next time I've got my hands on this boat.
I also found a few issues I hadn't noticed when I did my initial repairs. I had to go sailing to experience it (I had never sailed in this boat). There is a bit of flex on the lip of the cockpit that makes the trim fall off. I think I need to reinforce the weak spot I found there to prevent the flex and then re-rivet the trim.
 

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Because I have to bodily lift the Sunfish bow about two feet out of the water after each sail, my approach to an especially-secure handle repair would have been to cut an oval shape out of the deck to include the entire bow handle.

Atop a piece of plastic film taped flat near the removed portion of the deck, fabricate a larger oval out of epoxy resin and a few layers of regular fiberglass cloth. Then epoxy a S/S or aluminum plate to the back, align temporarily with the new bow handle and pre-drill for that bow handle, then align and epoxy the fabricated oval plate to the underside of the deck. Fill in the depression above the fabricated piece with more cloth and epoxy, sand and paint. Re-attach the bow handle with screws.

Epoxy resin is easy to work with, relatively odorless, and safer (I think) to be around than polyester resin and its MEK catalyst.

Alternatively, the fabricated piece could have your pre-threaded metal plate bonded to the back—with holes aligned to the new bow handle—and bolts could then be used to attach the bow handle.
 
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