Pre Release

[brad123]

My buddy is building a runabout and has sprayed the gelcoat and got the skin and a layer of material down. Everything is bonded but the boat has a void under the laminates towards(seperated from the mold) the rear. He has not cored the boat. Is it ok to finsish the boat with it released a little? What should he do? brad

[Eric Sponberg]

It depends on how badly it is released. If it is a small area, say less than a sq. foot or so, it will likely be OK. But you may have to refair the bottom after the boat comes out of the mold. If a large area is affected, that is a more serious matter. No matter how much is separated, simply laminating over is going to build a distortion into the hull that will have to be corrected. If the mold has good flanges, then it may be possible to laminate the next layers under vacuum bag. That is, as the vacuum bag pulls down on the laminate, it will also suck the air out between the gelcoat and the mold and pull the boat laminate back to the mold surface. The fresh laminate will then cure to the correct shape. You might need some advice from some professional boat builders. You are in Florida, and there are plenty of boat builders in the Stuart area that you can call for advice.

Good luck.