Recently obtained a 1995 26 that was dry docked for close to 7 years in South Dakota. Now there are very narrow hairline cracks that basically run from one rub rail to the next. It seems the cracks are more severe at the rub rail. I'm not sure if this has any relavence, but the motor was stolen during that time and was taken off pretty crudely. As a novice, I'd appreciate any help and am open to all suggestions. Thanks, Conn
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Design flaw
I'd like other water ballast sailors to chime in. I think what Conn is talking about is the crack that most all water balast Hunters have experienced. I think the crack is caused by the fact that Hunter laid gel coat right over the foam on that edge that goes from one rub rail to the other. I have seen articles in the archives about it. Crazy Dave has a quick cure of filling it with 5200. My 1994 23.5 has the same problem and the previous owner had parts of the edge reinforced with fiberglass but didn't do the whole edge (I don't know why) This winter I am having the edge completely glassed and be done with it. I think there is another person on the forum that had it glassed also.
I'd like other water ballast sailors to chime in. I think what Conn is talking about is the crack that most all water balast Hunters have experienced. I think the crack is caused by the fact that Hunter laid gel coat right over the foam on that edge that goes from one rub rail to the other. I have seen articles in the archives about it. Crazy Dave has a quick cure of filling it with 5200. My 1994 23.5 has the same problem and the previous owner had parts of the edge reinforced with fiberglass but didn't do the whole edge (I don't know why) This winter I am having the edge completely glassed and be done with it. I think there is another person on the forum that had it glassed also.
Mine too too
My 7-yr-old 1995 H23.5 came with the cracks as well. I had them fixed as a purchase condition but they came back within the first year. The topic has beed discussed a few times in the last two years on this forum. I haven't had mine re-fixed. Does anybody know if water will get inside or other damage caused if the cracks are just left cracked? ...RickM...
My 7-yr-old 1995 H23.5 came with the cracks as well. I had them fixed as a purchase condition but they came back within the first year. The topic has beed discussed a few times in the last two years on this forum. I haven't had mine re-fixed. Does anybody know if water will get inside or other damage caused if the cracks are just left cracked? ...RickM...
stress point?
It is hard to give a definative answer without seeing the cracks that you are talking about. However, from my experience with boats, cracks generally appear at stress points. I am assuming that the cracks are around the motor mount since you mentioned your outboard motor. In that case, I would have you look to see if there is a backing plate on the inside of the boat where the bolts penetrate the stern. I use a 8" square piece of aluminum as a backing plate in the installation of my motor. This process help with load distribution and elimination of cracks. Good luck and happy sailing.
It is hard to give a definative answer without seeing the cracks that you are talking about. However, from my experience with boats, cracks generally appear at stress points. I am assuming that the cracks are around the motor mount since you mentioned your outboard motor. In that case, I would have you look to see if there is a backing plate on the inside of the boat where the bolts penetrate the stern. I use a 8" square piece of aluminum as a backing plate in the installation of my motor. This process help with load distribution and elimination of cracks. Good luck and happy sailing.
Probably not stress in this case
The cracks are not near the motor mount. If you stand behind the boat and look at the stern the hull forms a big U-shape. It's nearly flat in the middle at the bottom (behind the rudder) and curves up on each side to the rub rail. My largest cracks are mostly on the bottom edge; the part that is in the water. I do have smaller cracks up the sides towards the top of the U (IE towards the rub rails). The starboard side with the motor is no worse than the port side. People who have dug their cracks out say that along this entire seam there is exposed foam core covered only with gelcoat. There is no fiberglass over the foam at all. The same people report that they dug it out with a dremmel tool, glassed it in and then covered with gelcoat and the cracks have not reappeared. I've never seen fiberglass work being done. I'm think of just gouging it out and filling with 5200. I can handle that much. One comment that nobody has ever made. I would expect the cracks to be fairly straight lines, and to be centered along the seam, but they are fairly erratic and go close to the edges in places. Does anybody else see this? ...RickM...
The cracks are not near the motor mount. If you stand behind the boat and look at the stern the hull forms a big U-shape. It's nearly flat in the middle at the bottom (behind the rudder) and curves up on each side to the rub rail. My largest cracks are mostly on the bottom edge; the part that is in the water. I do have smaller cracks up the sides towards the top of the U (IE towards the rub rails). The starboard side with the motor is no worse than the port side. People who have dug their cracks out say that along this entire seam there is exposed foam core covered only with gelcoat. There is no fiberglass over the foam at all. The same people report that they dug it out with a dremmel tool, glassed it in and then covered with gelcoat and the cracks have not reappeared. I've never seen fiberglass work being done. I'm think of just gouging it out and filling with 5200. I can handle that much. One comment that nobody has ever made. I would expect the cracks to be fairly straight lines, and to be centered along the seam, but they are fairly erratic and go close to the edges in places. Does anybody else see this? ...RickM...
Water in the Laminate
I also had cracks along the edge of the hull as it terminates at the stern on my '94 23.5. I was already doing some fiberglass/gel coat work so I decided to dig into it. Using a dremel tool, I decided to make a V-notch along the crack in order to fill with gel coat. Imagine my surprise as water started seeping out once I opened the crack! I then started digging in a little deeper (with the dremel tool) and found no glass, but saturated foam between layers of glass (imagine looking at the end grain of a foam-core structure). I went ahead and opened it up - dug out the saturated foam and putty and let everything dry out. The more I dug, the more water I found! BTW - on the 23.5, the ball end for the stern mast rest attachment is attached with a through bolt from the bottom of the hull - another possible source for water. So I also took that out to re-pot it with epoxy. I then cleaned everything and put thickened epoxy back in. Some gel coat, saran wrap, and a lot of masking tape brought the hull back to it's original cosmetics. I have not had a problem since. Brad W
I also had cracks along the edge of the hull as it terminates at the stern on my '94 23.5. I was already doing some fiberglass/gel coat work so I decided to dig into it. Using a dremel tool, I decided to make a V-notch along the crack in order to fill with gel coat. Imagine my surprise as water started seeping out once I opened the crack! I then started digging in a little deeper (with the dremel tool) and found no glass, but saturated foam between layers of glass (imagine looking at the end grain of a foam-core structure). I went ahead and opened it up - dug out the saturated foam and putty and let everything dry out. The more I dug, the more water I found! BTW - on the 23.5, the ball end for the stern mast rest attachment is attached with a through bolt from the bottom of the hull - another possible source for water. So I also took that out to re-pot it with epoxy. I then cleaned everything and put thickened epoxy back in. Some gel coat, saran wrap, and a lot of masking tape brought the hull back to it's original cosmetics. I have not had a problem since. Brad W
Brad - some more details
I can picture digging out the cracks and letting it dry, but how far did you dig in? When you say "opened up", you didn't actually pry the pieces apart to get further inside, did you? Did you do this from rub rail to rub rail, or just along the bottom? "Then I cleaned everything" - I assume this refers to the space that you dug out. Did you just use a dry rag, or some kind of cleaner? Thickened epoxy? I have a jar and small vial of White Marine-Tex. Is this what you used? "Some gel coat, saran wrap and masking tape..." Can you describe this a bit? I've never even seen gel coat. Does it just come in a can and you brush it on? Saran wrap??? ...RickM...
I can picture digging out the cracks and letting it dry, but how far did you dig in? When you say "opened up", you didn't actually pry the pieces apart to get further inside, did you? Did you do this from rub rail to rub rail, or just along the bottom? "Then I cleaned everything" - I assume this refers to the space that you dug out. Did you just use a dry rag, or some kind of cleaner? Thickened epoxy? I have a jar and small vial of White Marine-Tex. Is this what you used? "Some gel coat, saran wrap and masking tape..." Can you describe this a bit? I've never even seen gel coat. Does it just come in a can and you brush it on? Saran wrap??? ...RickM...
psost photos and I will tell you what I think
Take some photos and lets see what you are talking about first. We could get winded not knowing what specifically what we are looking at.
Take some photos and lets see what you are talking about first. We could get winded not knowing what specifically what we are looking at.
Photo 1
I appreciate all the responses and find everything about this website very helpful. Here's the first photo...
I appreciate all the responses and find everything about this website very helpful. Here's the first photo...
Yep, looks familiar
...except mine are along the bottom horizontal edge (IE in the water) and stop before going up around the curves. They don't go up to the rub rails as shown in Conn's pictures. His pictures show how the cracks go to the edge of the hull, not just down the centre of the seam as I would have expected given the description of what's under the gelcoat. ...RickM...
...except mine are along the bottom horizontal edge (IE in the water) and stop before going up around the curves. They don't go up to the rub rails as shown in Conn's pictures. His pictures show how the cracks go to the edge of the hull, not just down the centre of the seam as I would have expected given the description of what's under the gelcoat. ...RickM...
More Details
In response to Rick's request for more details: 1. My stern crack appeared simmilar to the cracks in Conn's pictures, but they were just along the bottom of the boat - about 3 ft long. Note that I did this work in the spring, at least 4 months after it was pulled out of the water, and there was still water in the laminate. 2. I dug into the foam until I reached good foam - about 5-6" in. I did not pry anything apart, just dug into the space between the fiberglass, about 1/4" to 3/8". A bicycle spoke works great. 3. From there, it was std fiberglass work. I roughened up the inside surfaces with 60-100 grit sandpaper. Cleaned it with MEK or Acetone. Used a hair dryer to dry thoroughly. Used some thickened West Systems epoxy (I used a chopped glass to thicken, you can also use the std West Systems thickener). I just pushed this fiberglass "goo" into the void I created and taped over it so it would not migrate back out. 4. Then it was standard gel coat work. I got some gel coat from Hunter (the HazMat shipping charges are killer!). Gel coat is like a 2-part thick paint. It can be sanded and polished to make it shine, but to minimize all of that hard labor, you can tape pces of saran wrap over the area you are gel coating. This smooths and contours the gel coat and minimizes any sanding and polishing. 5. Look in the SailNet archives for lots of articles on fiberglass and gel coat repairs. Also - West Systems has a great book for basic fiberglass repair available from their Web site. I've seen them from no cost to about $3. Brad
In response to Rick's request for more details: 1. My stern crack appeared simmilar to the cracks in Conn's pictures, but they were just along the bottom of the boat - about 3 ft long. Note that I did this work in the spring, at least 4 months after it was pulled out of the water, and there was still water in the laminate. 2. I dug into the foam until I reached good foam - about 5-6" in. I did not pry anything apart, just dug into the space between the fiberglass, about 1/4" to 3/8". A bicycle spoke works great. 3. From there, it was std fiberglass work. I roughened up the inside surfaces with 60-100 grit sandpaper. Cleaned it with MEK or Acetone. Used a hair dryer to dry thoroughly. Used some thickened West Systems epoxy (I used a chopped glass to thicken, you can also use the std West Systems thickener). I just pushed this fiberglass "goo" into the void I created and taped over it so it would not migrate back out. 4. Then it was standard gel coat work. I got some gel coat from Hunter (the HazMat shipping charges are killer!). Gel coat is like a 2-part thick paint. It can be sanded and polished to make it shine, but to minimize all of that hard labor, you can tape pces of saran wrap over the area you are gel coating. This smooths and contours the gel coat and minimizes any sanding and polishing. 5. Look in the SailNet archives for lots of articles on fiberglass and gel coat repairs. Also - West Systems has a great book for basic fiberglass repair available from their Web site. I've seen them from no cost to about $3. Brad
photos are worth their weight in gold.
Hull to deck joint at the transom is the culprit. What holds these two together is marine putty. Sometimes it gives but this is a simple fix. You will need to take a dremel and dremel the putty out between the deck and hull laminates. Clean out with acetone. Then take a two part epoxy filler one that is suitable for marine environement which you can purchase for example at West Marine or the HOW Chandlrey. Some folks use a marine glass based filler which will require a top filler to fill in the minute holes on the outer surface that it might leave. It will probably take two or three fillings but most important that what ever you do, tap the filler material in to avoid any voids. Once you have done this and sanded it down, just apply a white gel coat super white again which you probably can get local. On the back end, no one notices how close the color is and all you have to do is brush it on. Make sure the gel coat is the kind that will dry when adding hardner as it will have PVA or wax solution in it so the outer skin of the gel coat will dry.
Hull to deck joint at the transom is the culprit. What holds these two together is marine putty. Sometimes it gives but this is a simple fix. You will need to take a dremel and dremel the putty out between the deck and hull laminates. Clean out with acetone. Then take a two part epoxy filler one that is suitable for marine environement which you can purchase for example at West Marine or the HOW Chandlrey. Some folks use a marine glass based filler which will require a top filler to fill in the minute holes on the outer surface that it might leave. It will probably take two or three fillings but most important that what ever you do, tap the filler material in to avoid any voids. Once you have done this and sanded it down, just apply a white gel coat super white again which you probably can get local. On the back end, no one notices how close the color is and all you have to do is brush it on. Make sure the gel coat is the kind that will dry when adding hardner as it will have PVA or wax solution in it so the outer skin of the gel coat will dry.
Thanks for the input...
I appreciate all the input from everyone who contributed. I'll put this new knowledge to good use. Thanks!
I appreciate all the input from everyone who contributed. I'll put this new knowledge to good use. Thanks!
Wow Conn, I wouldn't call those Hairline!
Thanx for the pictures, it's hard for me to visualize without them. My '94 h26 only has about 3" worth just below the motor mount. They suddenly appeared one year, I think from impact of the motor shaft caused by a careless yard employee. alan
Thanx for the pictures, it's hard for me to visualize without them. My '94 h26 only has about 3" worth just below the motor mount. They suddenly appeared one year, I think from impact of the motor shaft caused by a careless yard employee. alan
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