I'm very glad I found this forum and hope to be an active part of it in time.
I was recently given an older Sunfish. I have never sailed a boat alone and hope to learn with this one.
One problem right off the bat is a crack down the middle of the keel (for lack of a better term). When the hull first arrived at my house it had a lot of water in it. So instead of trying to carry it up the driveway I rolled it up on several pieces of larger diameter PVC. It worked but created the crack. The crack goes all the way through as was evidenced by all the water that dumped out through it. I'll post a picture as soon as I can figure out how.
I intend to repair it by grinding the fiberglass down about 3/16" along most of the keel from the dagger board aft, filling it with several layers of graphite cloth and epoxy and then grinding it smooth. I have considered trying to separate the top of the boat from the bottom but figure this may be a bit extreme.
That's my intent at any rate, but I wanted to see if those on this forum more knowledgable than I might have a better approach.
Thanks for reading through this and for whatever help or comments may be forthcoming.
RVC
I was recently given an older Sunfish. I have never sailed a boat alone and hope to learn with this one.
One problem right off the bat is a crack down the middle of the keel (for lack of a better term). When the hull first arrived at my house it had a lot of water in it. So instead of trying to carry it up the driveway I rolled it up on several pieces of larger diameter PVC. It worked but created the crack. The crack goes all the way through as was evidenced by all the water that dumped out through it. I'll post a picture as soon as I can figure out how.
I intend to repair it by grinding the fiberglass down about 3/16" along most of the keel from the dagger board aft, filling it with several layers of graphite cloth and epoxy and then grinding it smooth. I have considered trying to separate the top of the boat from the bottom but figure this may be a bit extreme.
That's my intent at any rate, but I wanted to see if those on this forum more knowledgable than I might have a better approach.
Thanks for reading through this and for whatever help or comments may be forthcoming.
RVC