suprapilot

hello,,

Today i took my nitro sv27 to the lake for a few runs..first time in a month..it was sorta windy which made for some good choppy water with alot of airtime...

anyway did 4 runs with no problems..then i usually do all the maint. by the lake.i.e after run oil, grease the flex shaft, etc etc..
so after i finished all of this and packed up..i started to walk back to my car and i happened to notice a small crack towrads the front of the boat on the bottom right on one of the strakes...IDk when or how this crack got there..i did not hit anything or drop the boat or anything...now i just have a crack out of nowhere...its not huge, but it sort of deformed the smoothness of the bottom in that spot..

what can i do to fix this..i figured the only thing i can do is fill with a little bit of epoxy or something and just snad it to make it smooth...but i didnt really want to start sanding and tearing up the bottom of my boat just yet...

IDK if its big enough for water to get in or even if its all the way through the hull, but i can tell this crack will just get bigger and im sure the constant pounding on the water wont help either

ok so anyone please give me suggestions of what i should do...im extremely pissed off

Jerry Dunlap

The crack is in a non running area, so the repair won't affect the running of the boat. Take some heavy grit sand paper and remove the paint and gel coat along the crack. Go past each end of the crack at least 1"and 1/2" on either side. The best repair is to place 1 or 2 oz. cloth over the area in need of repair and apply thin CA to the glass cloth. The CA should wick into the crack and the cloth will provide strength. The area can be sanded and touched up with paint. If you have had the boat less than 90 days, it is still under warranty from defects. Cracks in fiberglass boats isn't all that uncommon. I'm not saying it's o.k., just that it does happen occasionally.

JD

Dreamin Hemi

First of all, post some good pictures of the damaged area. Sounds like a stress crack in the gelcoat, not much beyond that. Don't scuff your hull up just yet until you know if it's damage from impact or just a fracture of the gel. Take a few shots of the inside hull at that location as well.

RKS1949

Yup,Jerry is right. A little glass cloth,and CXa will fix it. If it isnt all the way through the hull (just the gel coat) a little glue is all that's needed. Ron

suprapilot

ok..first off sorry for the horrific spelling in the first part of this thread...

Ok i can post pics of the section from the outside, but i cannot get a good shot of it from the inside..it is forward of the fuel tank and seems to be right under or very close to a stringer....

Also the crack is right on one of the strakes, so im thinkin its not all the way through....also now that i look at it..it wont be in the water when on plane , but it will be getting beat on in rough water

where can i pick up the gel coat repair stuff??my LHS?

MiniMental

If ever your going to repair a crack in anything, you should drill a hole at the end of the crack. This stops it spreading down further later on in life. do not simply repair over it because it can still spread. Trust me, im a marine engineer

Aidan

suprapilot

^^^ thanx for the tip..

Its not a huge crack..but its enough that I know its there and now i know my boat isnt perfect like it was..(sorry im sort of a perfectionist)

but the real problem is that it will just spread, and the fact that i mostly run in choppy water wont help either..
I know these fiberglass hulls flex and twist in a crash or the squeezing that happens when you stuff the boat, so im hoping that the boat doesn't break apart if i happen to flip or crash

AND the usual..my boat seems to take on alot of water as it is..i dont want this to add to the problem...

MiniMental

Im not sure what to say to be honest haha. You should post a picture of the crack mate, then everybody can give their opinion as to what they think it is and you should do.

Aidan