It can be done
It will take alot of reading and some practice. First you have to determine if the crack is gelcoat or structural. Cat's have cored floors in the cockpit. If the core is wet it will delaminate and get spongy. A difficult repair! If it is JUST the gelcoat, you can make a nonskid template out of the existing nonskid. You do this by first spraying a section of good nonskid with PVA mould release. Mix some polyester or epoxy resin. Lay 2 layers of fine fiberglass mesh, say 6 oz., then coat the mess with the polyester or epoxy resin. (You could do this with the gelcoat resin but right after you apply it spray the top of it with the PVA mould release agent. This will cure the gelcoat resin to not be tacky to the touch." After the resin is set, a couple hours or the next morning, pop it off the boat. you will have a negitive mould of the nonskid. Now for the hard part. Gelcoat comes clear or white base. You will have to mix color into the gelcoat to match the color of your boat. You can do this by mixing color into a small amount of the gelcoat resin. You can test the color by putting alittle right on your old gel coat and compare. If it doesn''t match , wipe it off with acetone. Keep experimenting till your get the closest match. Remember, this will not setup till you add the catalyst. You will have to either widen the existing cracks or sand out the entire gelcoat to the laminate if the spidering is close knit. Don't go deeper that the existing gelcoat. Wipe the area with acetone. Mix in the catalyst and apply to the existing bad area. Spray the nonskid mould that you made with PVA form release. Line up the nonskid negative mould with the existing nonskid and apply some pressure. When the gelcoat has cured, pop off the nonskid mould. You will have some delicate sanding to blend the patch into the old nonskid and most likely there will be some color difference. However the gelcoat will be sealed from allowing water into the wood core of the cockpit. There are some other tricks to blend the gelcoat into the surrounding area. I would suggest reading some West System Brochures and maybe the book,"This Old Boat". I hope if I have forgotten anything that someone chimes in! r.w.landau
