Hull repair advice needed

[Darce]

I've noticed a boat down the club's hardstand which appears to be your typical "it's gotten too hard, ignore it and it'll go away" abandoned hard luck story.

It would appear that she very nearly got blown off her jinker/trailer in a storm last winter and is currently resting at about 30°. Without adequate wedging, all her weight has been resting on only one point for quite some time which has caused a depression in the hull - probably about 4" across a 2' area.

I'm wondering if it is possible by using pressure from the inside, together with a heating pad to soften the glass, to rectify the problem. There doesn't appear to be any crazing or cracking in the area.

[PAR]

'Glass has a "memory", but can adopt a new "set" if left for a long time distorted. Heat will not do much, bracing might, but as often is the case, you have to fill or cut out and repair these areas.

This is a common problem or trailer boats that hang off the end of the bunks, which eventually causes the hull to "hook". The usual solution is to fill the area and hope the 'glass doesn't remember it's "childhood" (which would push the filler into a hump).

Other concerns would be has the distortion moved things, like bulkheads, structural grid elements, furniture, buckled the liner, etc.

If it was in a "good" spot and you're lucky it didn't move things, then relieve the pressure, wait a month or two then fill the depression with a light weight filler. You're waiting to see if the hull will return to somewhat of a normal shape. It'll probably move some, but not all the way back.

If the distortion has moved things, well of course you'll have to cut out that portion of hull, fix the things that moved then probably reuse much of the distorted piece, repairing the hull shell.

Save the old gal if she's worth it.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Hi Darce
In answer to your question, I have done a repair exactly as described by you in the post.

We had a small racing yacht 24 footer that developed a pressure ding.
It was a good few years ago now but we managed to jack it back into place.

the boat was a laminate foamcore laminate jobbie, we cut the inner laminate-leaving the foam untouched,(on the interior side- fortunately the boat was just a racing shell with no furniture etc to get in the way) away to release some of the pressure, I then scarfed the inner laminate as much as was possible, I relaid up the laminate and while it was wet applied a temporay mould-in this case a piece of ply with plastic coating. I inserted a jack which was actually a type of screw jack for jacking/shoring up house floors,beams etc up on houses-cant remember what its called now(read-getting old). This was long enough to reach the opposite side of the boat. Obviously be careful where you seat it on the other side of the boat.
Get a mate onto the outside of the boat and screw it up gently until it reaches its original shape.
Leave overnight and strip temp mould next day. Sand down surface and apply larger and then larger etc laminate to disperse the load around the repair.

I must stress that not having done it before it was a bit of a 'have a go repair 'but in this case worked really well.

The other option is to cut out and rebuild the laminate - If you arent a professional fibreglass repair person then leave this to someone who is.

Have fun
regards

Justin

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Hi Darce
In answer to your question, I have done a repair exactly as described by you in the post.

We had a small racing yacht 24 footer that developed a pressure ding.
It was a good few years ago now but we managed to jack it back into place.

the boat was a laminate foamcore laminate jobbie, we cut the inner laminate-leaving the foam untouched,(on the interior side- fortunately the boat was just a racing shell with no furniture etc to get in the way) away to release some of the pressure, I then scarfed the inner laminate as much as was possible, I relaid up the laminate and while it was wet applied a temporay mould-in this case a piece of ply with plastic coating. I inserted a jack which was actually a type of screw jack for jacking/shoring up house floors,beams etc up on houses-cant remember what its called now(read-getting old). This was long enough to reach the opposite side of the boat. Obviously be careful where you seat it on the other side of the boat.
Get a mate onto the outside of the boat and screw it up gently until it reaches its original shape.
Leave overnight and strip temp mould next day. Sand down surface and apply larger and then larger etc laminate to disperse the load around the repair.

I must stress that not having done it before it was a bit of a 'have a go repair 'but in this case worked really well.

The other option is to cut out and rebuild the laminate - If you arent a professional fibreglass repair person then leave this to someone who is.

Have fun
regards

Justin