Two recommendations:
Duct tape! Use no more than one roll to bandage the wounds.
Use the boat only in water which is shallow enough that you can walk to shore.

wrote:

Please help, I'm in need of some advice. My brother bought a cheapo used
sailboat at a garage sail over ten years ago. He has since then abandoned it
and said that I can have it if I want it. A recent visit to a friend's beach
house in Florida has rekindled my interest in sailing and I'm thinking of
trying to fix it up. The problem is that it looks cheaper than I remember;
Styrofoam incased in plastic. Then 10+ years of sitting in the hot Texas sun
has made the plastic shell brittle in spots. Structurally it seems sound,
but areas were the plastic has broken away has created a couple sharp and
jagged spots that could be dangerous. I am thinking of just glassing the
whole thing, but I wanted to ask a few questions first. First and foremost
do you think it is worth the trouble? Given my current financial position,
it is either this or nothing. So I guess I should be asking IF it would
work? If I try it should I use polyester, or epoxy? Will it melt the
Styrofoam were it contacts? What weight cloth? Do you think one layer would
do the trick? Sorry about all the questions. I've done glasswork before, but
I'm far from being a pro. Unfortunately I don't know the make either. Thank
you very much for your responses.

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 17:18:22 GMT, in message

Jim Conlin wrote:

Two recommendations:
Duct tape! Use no more than one roll to bandage the wounds.
Use the boat only in water which is shallow enough that you can walk to shore.

From what I recall of sailing one of these things many years ago,
that's good advice for getting it go up wind as well.

wrote:
Sorry about all the questions. I've done glasswork before, but
I'm far from being a pro. Unfortunately I don't know the make either. Thank
you very much for your responses.

If you have some skills and are ready to work, you can probably get
more sailing by volunteering to help somebody on their restoration of
a boat more worthy of the time, effort, and money. Good skippers value
good crew, especially those who are ready to work on the boat.

Ryk