hull repair

Gunksman

Member
My Sunfish hull has a few spots that need repair. It looks like they are small holes/abrasions that go into the fiberglass mat. What is the best way to fix them? Can I just smear on some FG resin and then sand it?
 
Marine Tex epoxy putty is indeed fast. So are fiberglass repair kits, folks use either polyester resin or epoxy resin. Either is adequate.

Photos would be helpful, we are assuming you assessed the fiberglass for damage.
 
Sunfish decks and hulls are made with FG "roving", which appears from beneath like the popular "Berber"-style floor carpeting. Impacts can weaken it beyond what damage initially appears to the eye.

"Mat" is for building up repairs, and looks like a mish-mosh of FG spaghetti and strands of FG "string".

FG "Cloth"--depending on its weight--looks like a coarse-weave of linen or burlap.

Marine Tex epoxy putty is indeed fast. So are fiberglass repair kits, folks use either polyester resin or epoxy resin. Either is adequate.

Photos would be helpful, we are assuming you assessed the fiberglass for damage.
Marine-Tex will finish white in color--which saves a step. (Although it will eventually yellow from sunlight exposure :oops: ).
 
Marine Tex epoxy putty is indeed fast. So are fiberglass repair kits, folks use either polyester resin or epoxy resin. Either is adequate.

Photos would be helpful, we are assuming you assessed the fiberglass for damage.
Thanks for the info. Right now the boat is on the refurbished trailer and I'll need someone to help me flip it so I can get pics. There are two or there small holes in the keel about about 3/16" deep and the diameter of a pencil eraser. Also there is an abrasion on both chines where it was carried on a trailer that didn't support it properly. The abrasions are about 2" long and each ranges from worn gel coat to small gouges into the FB mat. I bought 3M 5200 Sealant for the purpose. I'm sure it'll work to keep it water tight, but think it might not be the right stuff for a permanent fix. It's meant to help seal through-hull fittings. All of the damaged areas are small. MarineTex? PE resin? Epoxy resin? I just want to fill the holes and make it smooth.
 
What we're calling the "keel" is not thicker roving than the rest of the roving material that makes up the rest of the Sunfish bottom. The "keel" is relatively thin, and takes a beating! :(

The next keel repair I work on, will have one or two layers of FG tape 4" wide added, and I'll keep it as thick as possible. Whatever weight penalty is suffered...is definitely worth it.

IMHO.
 
Thanks all. I returned the 3M silicone based material and purchased Marine Tex. It makes more sense since it can be shaped and sanded. I haven't yet applied it but will let you know how it turns out.
 
Simple question about your handle: you climb in the Gunks? Never got to run that old stage road, but it was on my radar... I kept climbing gear aboard my truck back in the day, and I DID manage to hook up with climbers in other areas, I just never made it to the Gunks. :confused:

Pictures in the magazines showed some pretty clean routes... easy access too, with the old stage road right there, just pull up and start climbing, LOL. :rolleyes:
 
Now that I think about it, the magazines called it a "carriage road"---but I reckon that included stagecoaches. "Stage road" is more of a Western phrase, LOL. :rolleyes:
 
Simple question about your handle: you climb in the Gunks? Never got to run that old stage road, but it was on my radar... I kept climbing gear aboard my truck back in the day, and I DID manage to hook up with climbers in other areas, I just never made it to the Gunks. :confused:

Pictures in the magazines showed some pretty clean routes... easy access too, with the old stage road right there, just pull up and start climbing, LOL. :rolleyes:
Yes, I used to climb there all the time, then in Yosemite after college: El Cap, Lost Arrow Spire, Snake Dike on Half Dome, Royal Arches and some in Tuolumne Meadows. The Gunks carriage road is right at the base, but you can't drive on it. You have to walk in. The guide book is very good and the locals are friendly and can point you in the right direction for specific routes. I also climbed in Senaca, Enchanted Rock, Armonk, St John's Ledges....
 
Awesome... didja ever meet Brian Mulvey or Chris Hubbard in Yosemite? Good climbers, in fact Brian worked as a guide in more than one location, maybe Chris did too. Those guys were tall & lean, ya know, so they made excellent climbers with that reach they had, LOL. I've seen both of 'em pull some gnarly routes, making those dicey sequences look EASY, LOL. :eek:

Anyway, it's good to meet another climber here, though I was always a better sailor than a climber... met a couple named Nathan & Laurinda too, and that gal could climb better than most guys, LOL. She was also an artist(e), here's a shot of one of her excellent watercolor paintings, I had it professionally framed after she gave it to me, as I liked it so much. Cool people, wish I knew where they were now... :rolleyes:

BTW, I have a million-dollar view of Cochise Stronghold, which is a technical rock climber's paradise here in Cochise County, Arizona. I loaned my guidebooks to some youngsters and I think they may have absconded with 'em, but that's okay, they were climbing blind (so to speak) and they weren't that experienced, so I may have saved their lives, LOL. Anytime you get down here, bring your gear and you can stay at the ol' hacienda... :cool:

JUST GOTTA DO A LONG MODERATE CLIMB OR TWO, I'M LOOKING AT A TRUCKLOAD OF 'EM RIGHT NOW, LOL... ;)

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Had to use a funky angle on the picture, trying to reduce that window glare from the opposite side of the home... didn't wanna pull the picture off the wall either, I have better shots of it in my files somewhere, but I can't be bothered to go find 'em right now. I'm throwin' in a shot of my cats Tiger & Crackhead, as "belay slaves" they are basically worthless, LOL. :confused:
 
Awesome... didja ever meet Brian Mulvey or Chris Hubbard in Yosemite? Good climbers, in fact Brian worked as a guide in more than one location, maybe Chris did too. Those guys were tall & lean, ya know, so they made excellent climbers with that reach they had, LOL. I've seen both of 'em pull some gnarly routes, making those dicey sequences look EASY, LOL. :eek:

Anyway, it's good to meet another climber here, though I was always a better sailor than a climber... met a couple named Nathan & Laurinda too, and that gal could climb better than most guys, LOL. She was also an artist(e), here's a shot of one of her excellent watercolor paintings, I had it professionally framed after she gave it to me, as I liked it so much. Cool people, wish I knew where they were now... :rolleyes:

BTW, I have a million-dollar view of Cochise Stronghold, which is a technical rock climber's paradise here in Cochise County, Arizona. I loaned my guidebooks to some youngsters and I think they may have absconded with 'em, but that's okay, they were climbing blind (so to speak) and they weren't that experienced, so I may have saved their lives, LOL. Anytime you get down here, bring your gear and you can stay at the ol' hacienda... :cool:

JUST GOTTA DO A LONG MODERATE CLIMB OR TWO, I'M LOOKING AT A TRUCKLOAD OF 'EM RIGHT NOW, LOL... ;)

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Had to use a funky angle on the picture, trying to reduce that window glare from the opposite side of the home... didn't wanna pull the picture off the wall either, I have better shots of it in my files somewhere, but I can't be bothered to go find 'em right now. I'm throwin' in a shot of my cats Tiger & Crackhead, as "belay slaves" they are basically worthless, LOL. :confused:
Awesome... didja ever meet Brian Mulvey or Chris Hubbard in Yosemite? Good climbers, in fact Brian worked as a guide in more than one location, maybe Chris did too. Those guys were tall & lean, ya know, so they made excellent climbers with that reach they had, LOL. I've seen both of 'em pull some gnarly routes, making those dicey sequences look EASY, LOL. :eek:

Anyway, it's good to meet another climber here, though I was always a better sailor than a climber... met a couple named Nathan & Laurinda too, and that gal could climb better than most guys, LOL. She was also an artist(e), here's a shot of one of her excellent watercolor paintings, I had it professionally framed after she gave it to me, as I liked it so much. Cool people, wish I knew where they were now... :rolleyes:

BTW, I have a million-dollar view of Cochise Stronghold, which is a technical rock climber's paradise here in Cochise County, Arizona. I loaned my guidebooks to some youngsters and I think they may have absconded with 'em, but that's okay, they were climbing blind (so to speak) and they weren't that experienced, so I may have saved their lives, LOL. Anytime you get down here, bring your gear and you can stay at the ol' hacienda... :cool:

JUST GOTTA DO A LONG MODERATE CLIMB OR TWO, I'M LOOKING AT A TRUCKLOAD OF 'EM RIGHT NOW, LOL... ;)

View attachment 41998
View attachment 41999

Had to use a funky angle on the picture, trying to reduce that window glare from the opposite side of the home... didn't wanna pull the picture off the wall either, I have better shots of it in my files somewhere, but I can't be bothered to go find 'em right now. I'm throwin' in a shot of my cats Tiger & Crackhead, as "belay slaves" they are basically worthless, LOL. :confused:
No, I didn't meet them. I've not seen the climbing in AZ, but would love to check it out. Thanks for the invite! I know what you mean about providing info/advice to others and saving their lives. I've done the same and helped with a couple of rescues in the Gunks. One of my long-time buddies now has a young son that is competing in climbing events. He's far better than my buddy and far, far, better than I am. He's maybe 13 years old!
 
Yeah, these youngsters nowadays are pretty good, they get an early start in whichever sport and in due time they're rock stars, LOL... :eek:

Went to bed too early last night, so now I'm up having a beer (my usual remedy for sleeplessness, except during the workweek). I'm actually looking forward to a work routine again, racking up that PTO so I can take sailing vacations in Dago... :rolleyes:

Anyway, check out these shots, the rock here is excellent, 'Stronghold Granite' as it is known to climbers & geologists... as always, some routes are better than others, but the overall quality is good. ;)

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Those are just a few shots from the excellent guidebooks written by Tanya Bok, best guidebooks I think I've ever seen... so kudos to her for putting 'em together. As you can see, the views are awesome, looking down the San Pedro Valley (on the West Side of the Dragoons), clear past Tombstone & Sierra Vista. My home overlooks the West Side, but East Side access isn't that far, just a drive of 35 or 40 miles. Good news is that one can camp for free in remote sites on either side, just gotta bring everything with ya, including firewood. But I'm so close that I don't really have to camp unless I WANT to camp, LOL... I spent a week camping on the West Side while waiting for escrow to close on my home, that was heller fun, and the dirt biking in this part of Arizona is awesome, heaps of dirt roads & trails leading up into all of these surrounding ranges. Not a bad area to live, just no ocean, which is why I plan to take sailing vacations in Dago (and cram as much sailing into each trip as possible, LOL). :rolleyes:

Oh, yeah, that topo map wasn't in the guidebooks, I bought that at the Summit Hut in Tucson, but you can see how radical the terrain is... the Stronghold is like a huge natural stone fortress covering square miles, no single photograph can capture all of it (unless that photo is taken from altitude). A climber can literally spend a LIFETIME exploring this area, that's how complex it is... whenever I head out there, I always hope to stumble across some miner's stash of gold from back in the day, when Tombstone was going off and the poor miner had Apaches closing in as he holed up in the rocks, LOL. I'd settle for an old pistol or rifle as a conversation piece, aye? But the Apaches probably scooped those up after scalping the poor b@stard... maybe they missed the gold stashed away in some crevice, LOL. Meh, one can only dream, but I'm sure there are places up there that haven't seen a living soul in a century and more, it's a pretty complex area. Okay, just wanted to share those shots, there is world-class climbing here, that's for sure, and uncrowded too since many folks are clueless about it... ;)

CHEERS!!! :cool:
 
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Wow! Great pics. I never knew about climbing there. I may have to visit, but will have to have some young rockstar haul my old butt up a few routes.
 
Haha, the guidebooks are full of such photos, and truth be told, there are MANY difficult routes out there... but there are also long moderate routes, and THOSE are the only ones I would even attempt at my age. Like you, my days of hard climbing are done, but I could still pull some of those long moderate routes, and the views are INSANE!!! Plus, how many routes do you know where you can look over and say to yourself:

"HEY, THAT'S TOMBSTONE!!!" :cool:

LOL... yeah, I like living here in Cochise County, it's pretty cool, and once I get back on the gubmint gravy train I can start racking up hours of PTO (again) for those sailing vacations. Wish things were moving a bit faster in that respect, but the 'plandemic' has everything moving like snails through molasses. I was surprised to hear that they hadn't filled this position yet, I thought it had been filled six weeks ago, LOL. ;)

Even if THIS job doesn't come through, I'm also in the running for two others, all with the same good benefits & retirement plan... and two jobs give hiring preference to applicants with a CDL-A. Hey, on a separate note, I remember Bill Bennett telling me how Cup Series sailors had all switched to climbing harnesses for mast work... good sailor, Billy Bones, they called him "Baby Dennis" due to his resemblance to Dennis Conner, LOL. :eek:

Kind of weird, those two sports overlapping, but ya gotta go with the best & lightest equipment, ya know? I used my climbing harness on multiple boat jobs, including hanging over the bow and stern of ships to paint the names and/or numbers. Never had any problem working at heights, just a healthy respect for gravity, LOL. Same goes for mast work, it's certainly not for everybody. :rolleyes:

Well, I've done enough reading for today, maybe I'll go watch a movie on ye olde 65" curved screen, I like my home theater setup, LOL. When I bailed outta Kalifornia, I told myself that I was gonna have all those things I never had before: pool table, big screen TVs, an open yet comfortably-furnished home, the whole nine yards. And so I've had 'em, here in Arizona... where the dollar goes so much farther than it does in Kalifornia, LOL. :)

I mean STRAIGHT UP, hand, where in Kalifornia can one buy a home with at least 1150 or 1200 square feet of usable floor space, sitting on roughly 1/4 acre with a million-dollar view of the Stronghold, situated on a terraced hill on a dead-end street (no thru traffic) in a crime-free neighborhood, ALL for $36K??? It can't be done in Kalifornia... one can't buy an outhouse in that state for $36K, LOL. Sure, I dumped another $5K into this home, but now it's worth twice as much, LOL. :D

This is why a lifelong small craft sailor wound up in the high desert, LOL... but I don't have any regrets, I've lived 'The Life of Riley' ever since I arrived in AZ, no doubt about it, and if I can't live by the ocean anymore, well, I'll just go to the ocean when the time is right. Arizona also has some cool lakes, starting with Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the two largest man-made reservoirs in the Lower 48, if not the entire nation. Roosevelt Lake is radical too, and it's not that far away... ;)

ALRIGHT, I'M DONE HERE, PARDON THE RAMBLING... I'M A LONG-WINDED B@STARD ONCE I GET STARTED, LOL. :eek:
 

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