Spider Cracks On Each Corner on H15 Dam - Advice on Repair?

Feb 26, 2010
259
Hunter 15 Fremantle, Western Australia
Today I noticed that there are quite a few spider cracks on the outside corners of the rear dam of my H15. I have been cleaning up the boat for two days prior to putting her up for sale. I didn't see them when the boat was out in the bright sunlight while I was washing her but today rolled her into my garage to polish and wax the hull. I don't want to spend a lot of money on the repair so can anyone advise an inexpensive method of repairing this problem?
 
Mar 20, 2012
3,983
Cal 34-III, MacGregor 25 Salem, Oregon
there is no inexpensive way to repair them, but then "inexpensive" is relative.... its all just time vs money vs quality.....
they need to be opened up/vee'd out and then filled with a matching color of gelcoat, then wet sanded back to level, without burning thru the existing gelcoat.... there is a lot of information on the web about spider crack repairs in gelcoat.

the spider cracks arent really harmful themselves, but it may be signs of stress at that point, and when attempting a repair there is a huge potential for causing it to look much worse than it does now.... and almost always if the cracks were caused by stress, and it gets stressed again.
 
Feb 26, 2010
259
Hunter 15 Fremantle, Western Australia
Sage advice, thanks. I was considering using that magicezy fine crack filler. I figured that if it didn't work I'd follow the traditional method.
 
Jul 14, 2015
840
Catalina 30 Stillhouse Hollow Marina
I use the magicezy. Definitely fills the cracks, but only does ok on hiding them.
 
Feb 26, 2010
259
Hunter 15 Fremantle, Western Australia
Had the cracks repaired by a pro. He did a proper job cutting the gelcoat back to the base layer and rebuilding the areas. He also compounded, polished and waxed the whole hull. It looks fabulous now. I tried the Magicezy but had a poor result. The hull is fibreglass Dave. I'll post some before and after photos tomorrow.
 
Last edited:
Jun 8, 2004
10,024
-na -NA Anywhere USA
Thank you for advising as sometimes folks think of the 14 Hunter ACP vs. the newer 15 Hunter which is fiberglass. Since this is the fiberglass boat, I will comment. The six holes due to conformity, appears that something was attached. The one hole where gel coat is cracked, you have to bevel out the gel coat down to the glass after drilling the hole because a wood screw will cause that to happen. Food for thought.
I would have filled the holes with two part epoxy (Water Tite) as it is not affected by water plus with the slow cure it is the hardest I found over the years repairing boats. Then sand smooth and spray paint with gel coat the entire area of the holds. This is where you have to be good matching gel coat unless you know where to get the exact white color from.

As for the spider webbing, believe it or not sometimes that will happen after the boat is sold but results from coming out of the mold when trying to loosen up when tapping the mold but again will not appear till later. Not sure about this but to grind down to the fiberglass is the best approach and fill and then spray with gel coat. You certainly got a good fiberglass person to do the job.

Spider cracks generally do not represent a structural defect but that will depend once the gel coat was removed to determine causation.