Gelcoat on keel

[Southern Hunter]

A while back while heading in from the canyon one night I hit what I believe was a log while running at about 25kts. It filled the speedometer holes on the engine with wood so that's how I knew what it was, I got the speedometer fixed no problem with a small drill bit. However, the reason I am posting this is while waxing the hull this past week...I stooped down for some reason and right on the keel at the front of the boat I noticed that the gelcoat had been ripped off right along the keel for about 8 inches long and only 1/2 maybe 3/4 inches wide.....the gelcoat is no longer there an I can see a bit of exposed fiberglass....or whatever it is that is right under the gelcoat......this may be very minor I don't exactly know.....but is this something I should be worried about can I get any water intrusion in my hull from this? Like I say I don't exactly know what I'm looking at but....I don't know the exact thickness of the hull here or if this material directly under my gelcoat could become saturated with water or what, all it really looks like is the gelcoat was peeled off which looked only to be 1/8 inch thick at the most anyway??? I'm sure this is from when I hit the log which was 4 or 5 trips ago....help me out here guys is this minor or should I be worried??

 

[CJBROWN]

The hull is very thick there so there probably isn't structural damage unless you can see crazing in the gel coat around it, or fractured glass where the gel coat is missing.

It's impossible to completly saturate glass matt with resin so yes, it will wick water and is very detrimental to your hull integrity if it sits in water with open glass matt.

Get a jar of patch paste from Spectrum and repair it. Will be good practice anyway even if you've never worked with it before. Make sure the hull gets plenty dried out at the damaged area before patching it. Sand with 60-80 grit for some bite, clean with acetone or MEK, and patch with gel coat repair. Marine tex will do in a pinch, but spectrum color will blend right in. Sand to shape with increasingly finer grit to 1000 and buff to gloss. Done right you won't be able to tell. On the keel it won't matter anyway, just get it covered up as a minimum.

When I was a kid we hit a submerged log with our old wooden cruiser. We rode over the log okay, but it bent both shafts and rudders, broke a blade off one prop and bent the crap out of the other, and tore both struts off the bottom of the boat. They were those big ol' bronze 3-blade props. We spent our summer vacation in the boat yard. In those years dad had zero decuctible insurance, paid for everything and some vacation money to boot. Was up in the Canadian Gulf Islands. Our boating friends towed us 28 miles to port to a ways. They had to truck the shafts to the next city to have them straightened.

Those friends had that broken prop mounted on a picture frame like a trophy and gave it to my dad sometime later. I think it was even hung on the wall of a bigger motoryacht in later years. Great discussion piece.

 

[seasick]

Yes, as mentioned, this is an issue. The hull will wick water like a sponge. Before recoating, you need to make sure the hull is dry. Depeneding on how wet it got, this can take a few days in a dry not so humid environment. In really bad cases which you probably don't have, drying can take weeks or months and sometimes the drying needs help.
If in doubt, tightly tape a piece of clear plastic (food wrap will do) around the damage and wait a day. If the underside of the plastic gets wet, the hull is oozing moisture and needs additional drying time.

here is the link to the Spectrum site
http://www.spectrumcolor.com/default.asp
If you search the web, there are some videos on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N7YMr6E564
that are pretty good intros to glass work

If you see fibers which you may need to do a bit more work as mentioned. If glass work is unfamiliar to you, you probably should find a reputable repair person.

Good luck

 

[Southern Hunter]

Gel Coat

How hard is it to get patched up....is this something I could do myself? What exactly is that directly beneath the gelcoat?

 

[CJBROWN]

Yes, you can do it yourself. Use the link above and order a jar of patch paste. About $25 shipped.

What you're seeing under the gel coat is the raw fiberglass layup. It's fiberglass matt wet-out with polyester resin. Exposed glass matt will wick water like crazy. Not to sink your boat, but to saturate the internal strands of glass matt with moisture.