Fiberglass "spider" crack repair

[James MM]

I need some advice from some long-time boaters. Some friends and I rented a Sea-doo jet boat over the weekend. When we returned the boat, the rental company claims that there were new "spider" cracks in the rear of the boat. Looking up close, there were two marks about 4 inches long each that look like the leggs of a dady-long-legs spider. To me, they look like stress cracks in the paint/gel coat and are not visible unless you're closer than a foot from the mark. The company is claiming over $1000 in damages that I think is absurd as there were several other marks on the boat that looked just like the "our" marks that we were told were done by somebody else. I'm most willing to pay for repairs, but I am afraid we are part of some scam. Can anyone provide information about such "cracks" and what is takes (effort and money) to repair them? Thanks so much!!

[Corpus Skipper]

More than likely these are just stress cracks in the gelcoat. Are they near the jet nozzle? If so, they're definitely stress cracks from the hull flexing from the thrust. If you didn't hit anything, they probably allready existed before you rented the ski. $1000 is pretty high for this repair, even if the hull was cracked all the way through. If you have no other choice but to pay for repairs, I'd ask for the usual 3 estimates, which I believe you probably have a legal right to. Good luck.

[dereksireci]

Ditto Corpus Skipper. In most cases these types of non-structural cracks are not covered by the manufacturers warranty, for what it's worth. They tend to happen on most boats.

Why not find out if Sea-doo covers them for new products. If not I wouldn't pay a damn thing.

djs

[TheFisher]

Yep, the hull is flexing causing the spider cracks in the gel coat.