I have a crack on the front top edge of the cockpit seat on my Seaward Fox. It is stored outdoors in winter in Ohio so after a freeze the crack appeared. I have no idea how water might have gotten behind the gelcoat to cause the crack in the first place. I repaired the crack with "Marine Tex" but now I'm sure there's water in the plywood core because it now cracks again every time it freezes. I know I've got to let it dry out thoroughly this summer before attempting another repair. I'll need tocover the crack with tape in the meantime to keep rainwater out but then how can it dry? My thought is to drill a few holes into the crack and through the fiberglass to the interior of the cabin. Am I on the right track?
drilling through cracked fiberglass
- Thread starter mikeepp
- Start date
Remove the damaged fiberglass, dry out the core, then re-glass. Suggest avoid drilling through to the cabin, if possible. Refer to these links below, including the Youtube one entitled "How to Repair Deep Cracks in Fiberglass Boats".
Repairing large fiberglass cracks in boats
Repairing fiberglass cracks in boats
www.diy-fiberglass-boat-repair.com
The only lasting solution will be to remove the skin and the underlying core and then replace the core and skin. Once the wood has become wet it will eventually rot. You'll also need to find the source. It could be almost anywhere.
Drilling lots of holes through the area will allow air in to help dry it out. It may take two or three years, but if you keep it from getting wet in the interim, it should work. Water has worked its way in there over a LONG time. Getting it to dry out, even with lots of holes, is going to take longer than you think. The best way to attack a problem like this is to open up as much of the damaged/wet/damp area as possible by removing one the layers of fiberglass that encapsulates (or which used to encapsulate) it. If you can go at it from a place that doesn’t show, from underneath the deck for example, it avoids having to rebuild and re-create the deck nonskid pattern so the repair doesn’t look nasty. From your picture it appears that the deck and nonskid have already been damaged so perhaps taking it off the top might be the way to go: the cracks have to be repaired anyway. A dremel tool should cut the fiberglass fairly easily, but you want to remove as much as possible in one piece so that you can re-use it to keep the repair from looking like too much of a mess. You will want to cut the fiberglass back to where there is dry plywood, and then remove all the wet/rotted/moist/delaminated plywood that you find. This may involve exploring to find where the water is coming in and plugging that leak. You may want to bevel the edges of the repair in order to keep it strong - the area around the cockpit gets a lot of abuse. Cut new plywood to fill in the space and set it in place with epoxygoop. Then replace the fiberglass deck piece(s) that you cut out and ‘glass them back in with fiberglass tape and epoxy. This is where doing a neat job gets difficult, and why pros charge so much. You may want to gelcoat the cuts so they don’t look so bad. Paint is another option, but painting turns into a Sisyphian task.