We purchased an old snark sailboat at a yard sail in need of some TLC. We are trying to find out how to repair the hull. It has a styrofoam base covered with a plastic like material that has started to crack into pieces. Does anyone know how to repair or what we could put over the hull to save this old boat. We are knew to sailing and want to try to fix this before we invest in upgrading to a newer boat. Thanks for any help anyone can give us. Shelmil53@aol.com
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If it's foam cored fiberglass.....
I do not know about the Snark, but if it'sold, I doubt that it is molded plstic like the the Walker Bay dinghies. Probably fiberglass and you may have stress cracks that are pretty easy to fill. In fact with small boat you could do the repair and regelcoat the entire boat (easier and cheaper than two-part paint). Alternatively open and fill the cracks with a two-part repair resin like Marintex, then degrease and sand the whole hull and apply a good two part urethane like Interlux. If you look above your posting to Fiberglass Trilogy II it deals with cosmetic gelcoat repairs, what you need and how to color match etc. Hope this is of some help. Anyone out there who knows more about this particular boat? Thanks ALW
I do not know about the Snark, but if it'sold, I doubt that it is molded plstic like the the Walker Bay dinghies. Probably fiberglass and you may have stress cracks that are pretty easy to fill. In fact with small boat you could do the repair and regelcoat the entire boat (easier and cheaper than two-part paint). Alternatively open and fill the cracks with a two-part repair resin like Marintex, then degrease and sand the whole hull and apply a good two part urethane like Interlux. If you look above your posting to Fiberglass Trilogy II it deals with cosmetic gelcoat repairs, what you need and how to color match etc. Hope this is of some help. Anyone out there who knows more about this particular boat? Thanks ALW
No idea how to fix it but
I had one 25 - 30 years ago. It was a styrafoam boat with a plastic yellow coating. I think it was called corelight? If you can figure out who manufactured it, perhaps they can help. Is there any documentation or a capacity plate. It might have been AMF. Good luck, Warren Feldstein
I had one 25 - 30 years ago. It was a styrafoam boat with a plastic yellow coating. I think it was called corelight? If you can figure out who manufactured it, perhaps they can help. Is there any documentation or a capacity plate. It might have been AMF. Good luck, Warren Feldstein
Snarks are made by CastleCraft
I have a Snark Sunchaser II. Its a great little sloop-rigged cartopper that is extremely easy to sail. The hull is not fiberglass - its a material that CastleCraft (the maker) calls ABS polymer, which CastleCraft says is similar to lexan or royalex. CastleCraft can be reached at 1-888-274-8490 or www.castlecraft.com. They should have tips on how to fix cracks. Good Luck! P.S. Backyard Boats in Woodbridge, Va. sells Snarks, so they may have repair info also.
I have a Snark Sunchaser II. Its a great little sloop-rigged cartopper that is extremely easy to sail. The hull is not fiberglass - its a material that CastleCraft (the maker) calls ABS polymer, which CastleCraft says is similar to lexan or royalex. CastleCraft can be reached at 1-888-274-8490 or www.castlecraft.com. They should have tips on how to fix cracks. Good Luck! P.S. Backyard Boats in Woodbridge, Va. sells Snarks, so they may have repair info also.
I sailed an old Snark
I sailed an old Snark Mayflower for years. The core is dense styrofoam covered by ABS plastic. I never found a specific repair but have used Marine Tex on some areas like the bow chine and Silicon based caulk in places that needed more flex. Larger areas may need a plate (e.g. plywood or sheet metal) bolted to a backing plate on the other side of the hull. The good news is you can't go wrong. Mine was a great boat. You can't tear it up!! Have fun!
I sailed an old Snark Mayflower for years. The core is dense styrofoam covered by ABS plastic. I never found a specific repair but have used Marine Tex on some areas like the bow chine and Silicon based caulk in places that needed more flex. Larger areas may need a plate (e.g. plywood or sheet metal) bolted to a backing plate on the other side of the hull. The good news is you can't go wrong. Mine was a great boat. You can't tear it up!! Have fun!
Fond memories...
I purchased a new Snark in 1969. In those days, the basic Snark model was a plain hunk of molded styrofoam, with no plastic or fiberglass coating. Just raw high-density styrofoam. Shortly after making the purchase, we moved from the State of Washington to New Jersy. We cartopped the Snark from one end of the country to the other. When it was a couple years old, it snapped into two pieces, laterally at the spot where the mast support hole is located. I cemented the two pieces together, using a contact cement designed for styrofoam. Then I covered the entire hull, inside and out, with fiberglass cloth and resin, in the manner we used to cover wooden boats. I set the boat on saw horses and did the job in the garage. I finished the effort by painting the fiberglass-coated hull with a two-part epoxy, bright red. If I have to say so myself, it was a beautiful job. It added a lot of stiffness to the boat, lessened the need to be super careful in avoiding dents and gouges in the raw styrofoam, improved sailing performance by giving the hull a much smoother surface, and greatly improved the appearance of the little boat. We sailed it for nearly four more years, then sold it to a neighbor when we moved back to the West. Perhaps a similar restoration would work on your boat: sand the hull thoroughly, then recover it with fiberglass cloth and resin, and give it a good coating of epoxy paint. I have fond memories of my old Snark. It was my first boat, and it taught me a lot about sailing techniques. Good luck, Dale
I purchased a new Snark in 1969. In those days, the basic Snark model was a plain hunk of molded styrofoam, with no plastic or fiberglass coating. Just raw high-density styrofoam. Shortly after making the purchase, we moved from the State of Washington to New Jersy. We cartopped the Snark from one end of the country to the other. When it was a couple years old, it snapped into two pieces, laterally at the spot where the mast support hole is located. I cemented the two pieces together, using a contact cement designed for styrofoam. Then I covered the entire hull, inside and out, with fiberglass cloth and resin, in the manner we used to cover wooden boats. I set the boat on saw horses and did the job in the garage. I finished the effort by painting the fiberglass-coated hull with a two-part epoxy, bright red. If I have to say so myself, it was a beautiful job. It added a lot of stiffness to the boat, lessened the need to be super careful in avoiding dents and gouges in the raw styrofoam, improved sailing performance by giving the hull a much smoother surface, and greatly improved the appearance of the little boat. We sailed it for nearly four more years, then sold it to a neighbor when we moved back to the West. Perhaps a similar restoration would work on your boat: sand the hull thoroughly, then recover it with fiberglass cloth and resin, and give it a good coating of epoxy paint. I have fond memories of my old Snark. It was my first boat, and it taught me a lot about sailing techniques. Good luck, Dale
No citrus cleaners on polystyrene
Looked up the Castelcraft site. Very interesting.... I am looking into ways of fixing cracks in the ABS skin, there is one liquid viyl product that you can get from TAPplastics.com that might do the trick. However I understand that the older Snarks are made of polystyrene. I used to do lots of boat shows in N. California and one confusion was a stall selling a citrus cleaner. These are OK with water dilution, but the terpene based solvent is very unselective. So, pressed, when people pressed me as to why they shouldn't use Citrus stuff to vinyl, foam cored material etc and other stuff. I used to drop polystyrene peanuts into the undiluted citrus cleaners - they just dissolve. Same if you put such a cleaner in a polystyrene cup. It eats a hole in it. Therfore, if you get something on polystyrene and you want to clean it off, do NOT use terpentine or citrus products.! ALW
Looked up the Castelcraft site. Very interesting.... I am looking into ways of fixing cracks in the ABS skin, there is one liquid viyl product that you can get from TAPplastics.com that might do the trick. However I understand that the older Snarks are made of polystyrene. I used to do lots of boat shows in N. California and one confusion was a stall selling a citrus cleaner. These are OK with water dilution, but the terpene based solvent is very unselective. So, pressed, when people pressed me as to why they shouldn't use Citrus stuff to vinyl, foam cored material etc and other stuff. I used to drop polystyrene peanuts into the undiluted citrus cleaners - they just dissolve. Same if you put such a cleaner in a polystyrene cup. It eats a hole in it. Therfore, if you get something on polystyrene and you want to clean it off, do NOT use terpentine or citrus products.! ALW
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