Can/should Hull damage be repaired

[jbafa]

I inherited this sunfish, sailed it once and noticed it was taking on water. There's a crack in a previously repaired section of the hull. Can this be proffessionally repaired and if so, ballpark, what should it cost me? Thanks everyone.

 

[drumbeater]

Mine is doing the same thing in the same place, but it was a previous repair that failed. I'm repairing it with West Systems epoxy and fiberglass tape. So far it looks ok. The hardest part was making a piece of fiberglass to go inside the hull, and then bond it with epoxy while having no inside hull access. I plan to post some pictures when I get it done.

Only time will tell if it fails again or not. This is the first structural repair I've done, the other stuff was just covering old holes in decks, consoles, etc.

You could probably get a pro to do it for a couple hundred bucks and have it back in a few days. Mine's taking me a month because of regular job, other duties.

John

 

[sailyor]

If i were you, I would save the money and repair it myself. Fiberglass repairs are fairly simple, and the only cost would be around $15 for a repair kit.

 

[drumbeater]

I had no so great results with my patch. It looked ok, but I had a couple areas where there were air pockets and thin laminate. I didnt want to go through patching again in a couple years so I dropped it off to my local repair guy. He said what I did looked pretty good and he could just touch it up and finish the repair with some poly paint.

He told me two things that I didn't know:

1) Use fast hardener, not slow. He said the high heat index we get in the south could cause a repair to become soft if the hull was out in the sun/heat for extended periods.

2) Gel coat does not easily stick to Epoxy Resin. It will flake off eventually (he said).

It might cost me a couple hundred bucks, but I've been goofing around with it for three weeks and my son would like his boat back.

 

[jbafa]

Thanks for the help. I may try it myself but my wife is against it!