I have a hole in my sunfish sailboat. It's about 1/2" and it's right
at the corner where the back-side-bottom meet. Should I put
fiberglass cloth over a few sqare inches and feather it down, then
cover with gel coat. If so, which kind of cloth should I use. Or is
there a way to just fill the hole itself then gel coat?

--Scott

I would probably start by plugging the hole with some sort of 2 part epoxy
i.e.. JB weld or equivalent. this will not do anything but give you a good
base off of which you can add your repair plies.

Once you have the hole plugged with a filler you have 2 options depending
on whether the thickness of the hull plus the repair is a concern to you.

Option 1
If you DO care how thick its going to be after the repair you can scarf back
existing material on the inside of the boat . You will want to remove 1 ply
at time starting with and area approx 1/2" larger in circum than your
existing hole. I would remove or scarf back the material on the inside of
the hull. I would continue this process, stepping back and addl. 1/2" until
I was a minimum of 4 plies deep. if its blow glass just remove material up
to a deep

Option 2
If you don't care about thickness, DONT remove any material. Just surface
prep the repair area and add the repair plies as indicated below. This is
what I would recommend, especially if your hull is not mfg from hand laid
fabric. No point in removing material if you do not need to.


Once you have scarfed back the plies or prepped the area depending on which
option you chose, clean the area and reapply layers of dry glass and resin
as indicated below:

1) first ply should be the size of the hole - roughly 1/2" in Dia. Cut the
material so that the weave is oriented up/down and left/right (0-90°). Apply
resin onto the cloth and roll to evenly distribute the resin and remove air
pockets.

2) Apply the second ply 1/2" larger than the first but orient the weave so
that it is clocked 45° from the first ply. Apply resin roll.

3)Add the 3rd ply - 1/2" larger than ply#2. Apply resin roll (Weave should
again be on a 45°)

4)apply ply#4 - 1/2" larger than ply #3. Weave should be back to up/down,
left/right (0-90°).

You may want to add an additional sacrificial ply on top of this lay-up as
well as a ply or two on the outside of the boat for cosmetics so that you
can sand things back for a better appearance. This combination of
alternating weaves will maximize the strength of the repair. I would
probably try to find crowfoot-satin weave cloth as it will be easy to drape
in the corners, but anything will work.

Once you have you F/G lay up in place and it has cured, you can go back and
apply gel coat to the outside.

I have never repaired a boat as I work in the world of aerospace, but I did
stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night..

Good luck!!



"Scott G." wrote in message
...
I have a hole in my sunfish sailboat. It's about 1/2" and it's right
at the corner where the back-side-bottom meet. Should I put
fiberglass cloth over a few sqare inches and feather it down, then
cover with gel coat. If so, which kind of cloth should I use. Or is
there a way to just fill the hole itself then gel coat?

--Scott