Little indentation in hull...should I worry?

[Sean10633]

I've had a small to medium indentation on my hull for some time now(1-1.5'). It's not soft, just indented. Is this something I should worry about? To fix this, should I try to pound it out from the inside and glass over the inside section to give it more strength, or would I need to build it up with new glass on the outside & new gel coat. I'd hate to have to do the latter.I haven't ever done any glass work, but I've seen some diy jobs that others have done, and it doesn't seem very complicated, just a process. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.Thanks,-Sean

 

[Steve677]

Don't pound anything...

Too brittle. If you start pounding on fiberglass like you are working with sheet metal you will, in the very least, crack off your gell coat. You could have an ugly situation to deal with. What kind of boat? Where on the hull is this indentation located?

 

[Ross]

My guess is that something pressed on that spot

for a long time. Something like the blocking in a cradle.. Knowing the location would help.

 

[Sean10633]

A MacGregor 26S - Just Below Cockpit

...above the cockpit. I haven't had any issues with it so far. It looks like something the PO had done, maybe ran into a pile on or something of that sort. But now that I've been really making her my own, I've been looking at this more and more. Should I just leave it alone? I mean, I'm not a racer, so any little bit of performance lost won't be a big deal. I just don't want it to be something that could get worse or cause any future structural issues.-Sean

 

[Sean10633]

...oops.. below cockpit..above waterline..

nm

 

[Ross]

Can you get you feet against the inside?

And push? Otherwise I would ignore it.

 

[Sean10633]

Yes, I could put some pressure on it..

..but I was worried about putting too much stress on the glass, much like what Steve mentioned...and my other thought was, how concerned should I be about this, if I were to leave it as is?

 

[Chris Burti]

Sean...try checking your rigging

I had the same situation to occur on my old Cal 27-T/2. Finally figured out that I had tightened one shroud a bit too much when I finished up installing my new furler. This put extra pressure on one bulkhead which apparently wracked the hull and created what looked like a basketball sized dent in the side of the hull.Once I got my rig tensioned properly, the dent went away after couple of (hot) days.Yours may be caused by an entirely different issue, but the rig is is easy to check and worth doing anyway.

 

[Sean10633]

Rigging...

Chris,There was a time when I had the mast down, during some warm weather, and the dent didn't correct itself..so if the rigging was at fault it should've corrected itself then, right?I'll definitely check it out though, like you say, it's always worth a look. Thanks,-Sean

 

[Chris Burti]

Makes sense to me.

that if you had the mast down, active tension isn't likely to be the problem.I seem to recall seeing the same thing on an O'Day 27 on the hard, but don't recall determining the cause. I suspect that I assumed it had to do with improper blocking.