Last Fall I bought a 1973 Minifish, as an upgrade from my aluminum sailing canoe. So far I've sailed it only a few times (a test-sail last season, and three or four times this season). The beach I launch from on Cayuga Lake is very rocky (all rocks, from gravel up to baseball-sized, no sand at all). This was never a problem for my aluminum canoe or plastic kayak, but apparently this hull is more fragile than those, and now I've dinged it in three places. (I thought the hull was fiberglass, but it seems to be something a lot thinner and more fragile than that.) Evidently I'll have to treat it more gently in the future. But in the meantime, can I fix or fill these dings with the same "Thixo" thickened-epoxy that I used to fill some dings in my mast step, following advice on this site from last Fall?
Ding #1, on the side or corner edge:
Ding #2, also on the corner edge. This was evidently a previous repair of some kind, maybe also this same Thixo stuff, but of a brown color. When I got the boat it was a smooth slightly raised brown area that I thought was a fiberglass patch to a fiberglass hull, but now it has cracked in the middle and is peeling off, revealing the same kind of squishy fibrous stuff underneath as in ding #1.
Ding #3: this is a simple crack, in the flat part of the bottom of the hull.
So, can I patch these with this same "Thixo" stuff? I have some left over from the tube I used for the mast step, though it was getting pretty hard to squeeze it out with my hand-squeeze caulking gun, and I might need a fresh tube.
Thanks for any advice on this. And by the way, what is this hull made of, if it's not fiberglass?
Ding #1, on the side or corner edge:
Ding #2, also on the corner edge. This was evidently a previous repair of some kind, maybe also this same Thixo stuff, but of a brown color. When I got the boat it was a smooth slightly raised brown area that I thought was a fiberglass patch to a fiberglass hull, but now it has cracked in the middle and is peeling off, revealing the same kind of squishy fibrous stuff underneath as in ding #1.
Ding #3: this is a simple crack, in the flat part of the bottom of the hull.
So, can I patch these with this same "Thixo" stuff? I have some left over from the tube I used for the mast step, though it was getting pretty hard to squeeze it out with my hand-squeeze caulking gun, and I might need a fresh tube.
Thanks for any advice on this. And by the way, what is this hull made of, if it's not fiberglass?