If you live in or near any medium or large metro area there is an outlet for fiberglass supplies. An emergency patch is not brain surgery...NEVER NEVER let the fiberglass in a boat get wet and if it does use a heat gun ON LOW to dry it out. . An emergency patch consists of sanding the dry damaged area lightly...removing any fibers ...soaking a strip of fiberglass in risen and puting it over the damaged area. When it drys..repeat the process once ot twice more. If unable to find supplies go on the web and order i them.but keep that damaged area dry until repaired or your boat may be headed for the dumpWhile waiting for the hurricane to pass before sailing again, I noticed several breaks and some old repairs within two inches of the keel's center on my upside-down Sunfish.
I couldn't find a local source for West
Systems epoxy, so a major repair will have to wait until Spring. It sails OK, but has water inside after every sail.
To repair [just] the keel from the inside, has anyone cut out four feet of keel from the daggerboard trunk--on back?
What you say is true basicaly because sunfish have only a light coat of fiberglass but I have seen,even owned one sailbopat that developed serious delamination below the water line because of wet unprotected fiberglass apparently the result of hiting an underwater object. One of the first signs of trouble is when you haul the boat out and see a bubble in the hull. Back to sunfish: Living in humid Florida I have been placing small packets of Damp Rid in the hull when ever the boat won't be used for awhile. I use the closet hanging type from Home Depot and they soak up quite a bit of moisture from the humidity... and my foam and glue are dry. Might work elsewhere in the USA.It's the expanding foam used to attach the close-cell foam blocks that acts like a sponge. The
closed-cell foam blocks are next to absorb water. The fiberglass itself does not absorb much in
the way of water. Getting all the water out of the foam takes about 4 month for the first 75% and
about a year for last 25% if you have low humidity conditions such as the winter season. I've never
seen a Sunfish suffer delamination since I believe the hull is constructed of single layer of
woven roving.
If you want to experiment with a emergency patch before a permanent fix try this, coat a
strip of fiberglass with 3m 5200 and stick it on the keel then place boat in water. This is done
as a emergency patch when you need to get control of a hull breach long enough to get
back to shore. On flat surfaces sometimes a chunk of plywood and 3m 5200 are used.
There is also a 2 part putty but I've not heard of this as being as effective. Should give you
some experience for when you transition to a boat you life depends on.
What is the "Shoreline Method"? Is it like slicing off the Sunfish keel like one would slice a tomato?Especially as the tub would interfere with a saber-saw blade's strokes, I was thinking of using my Skil saw to make the cut.
OK...Thanks...Now I recall the method, but just didn't recall the name, "Shoreline method".Watch this: its the shoreline method. It was very effective for me - and easy to do.
I agree.I would air test. Grind out the bad spots and fix them. I would not cut large sections from the hull, too much work.
On my other Sunfish, I started removing a bad spot, and found the damage went on and on.I would air test. Grind out the bad spots and fix them. I would not cut large sections from the hull, too much work.
I'm starting the keel repair, and decided not to make a major job of it. As above, the entire length of the keel is "suspect"—the result of an old five-foot repair from daggerboard to aft of the tub. The existing gray filler looks like used chewing gum, and can be peeled—in places—by hand!Most common location for keel repair is just behind the dagger board. Often part of the break is over the tub area. I used the Shore Line method of cutting out the keel section, reinforcing the
inside and replacing the removed part. Worked quite well and resulted in a stronger than factory
keel. Not how it would be done on a bigger boat but perfect for a Sunfish.