On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 19:38:18 -0600, "Bonasa" wrote:

Hi,
///. Once I cut out the ruined fiberglass I'm going to have a hole
about 3.5 feet long and 4 inches wide. I can get to the crack from the
inside, so I'll be laying acrylic over the exterior and applying the gelcoat
as shown in the book. But because it's a horizontal repair instead of the
neat little circles of mat shown in the book I'm going to have to use big
long strips in progressively longer strips.

Even with the 12:1 taper I'm concerned about the strength of the repair.
Fortunately the crack is not on a structural part of the boat but is this
going to be a repair I can trust to hold with a mechanical bond?

///

In my view, such a repair can be made arbitrarily strong.
And that's a problem. You certainly don't want to install a distinct
step in a glass wall, because that is a stress concentrator, and the
hull is begging to crack at the transition to the thin wall, next
time it gets a big bump.
But you knew that. Smooth transitions are the way to go.
And if you mean to taper the existing material at the transition to
the repair reinforcement, you deserve to to get the repair that
will hang in there.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK