Ewan Scott wrote in message
...

Me Again.
This time I may proof read this.

I followed Richard Hayes instructions pretty much to the letter.
I ground the beast out with a Dremmel and found the cracks much deaper
that I previously thought. I ground through the boat in two spots.
I put some packing tape inside he hull to keep things in order as I
worked the ourside and got the gouges filled.
It is not going to be perfect but it is not bad.
I had about 10 yards of 10 Oz Fibre Glass cloth left over from a canoe
I built a long time ago. I used a little of that to reinforce the hull
under the repair.
Seems to work.
I am wondering how you get a reasonable gell coat back on there or do
I just paint it.

Right now I am not sure but I should just have reinforced the inside
and painted the begger. I am told I shuold have just left it because
it can last that way for years and only requires that level or repair
when it actually starts to break down

During my efforts I found another less pronounced star crack around
the skeg box.
That one I likely deserve as I remember one drop os some consiquence.

Are the NDK boats prone to star cracks?? I have one other glass boat,
It has one well deserved crunch but no star cracks. It is much more
flexable all over. The NDK has been babied.

Star cracks are gebnerally quite small and IIRC occur when the surface
has had a good dunt. The substrate matting flexes and the top coat gel
cracks.

By th sounds of your first patch you needed to repair the hull anyway.

These smaller ones - I'd just rough sand them, and paint with gelcoat.


You'll not like this, having "done" your repair, but the next time round I
suggest you do all your prep work and then use packing tape to cover the
OUTSIDE of the hole. Now apply your gel coat (colored as necessary) from the
inside and leave o/night. Now build up your repair from the inside using
your chosen glass material. When you remove the packing tape you'll have a
nice smooth external finish.

I've done substantial repairs with this method with extremely good results,
including rebuilding the foredeck of a general-purpose boat to the extent
that the job was done in 3 stages to cope with all the different angles.

If you have a rummage in the forum/community on the ukriversguidbook site
you'll find an excellent summary from one Jim Wallis on the subject of the
appropriate materials to use. He sometimes looks in on what remains of this
group so maybe he'll post a summary.

The packing tape trick can also be used to good effect on simpler external
repairs using gel coat or gel coat filler (chandlers will have it) by
applying it on top of the gel coat and leaving it until the gel has set.

Mike.