Help

[adam donovan]

i have 1957 plywood boat built by grand pa and he has passed on. i need to repair a grapefruit size hole in the side mid way up 6in from transom . in the same corner a fist size hole in the bottom was repaired but very poorly i want to do it right so my family can be safe any help would be great

[marshmat]

Hi adam, welcome aboard

Are these holes impact damage, or are they rot?

Impact damage in plywood is fairly easy to repair, although it can be tedious. It's mainly a matter of cutting out the damaged area (all the way back to sound wood), cutting a patch to fill the gap, and using a suitable amount of fibreglass set in epoxy on each side to get back to the original strength of the plywood. Tedious work, but as long as you're patient and meticulous, it can be done.

Rot is substantially harder to deal with. By the time a bit of it is visible, it may have penetrated quite a distance within the inner veneers of the plywood.

If you can post a few photos of the damage, it might help some of our experts (there are a few professional restorers and repairers on here) figure out how the repair might be done.

[adam donovan]

rot is the problem i spent along time digging it out the hole started about the size of baseball