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From: David&Joan (no email)
Date: Sat Sep 03 2005 - 20:35:03 EDT
Roger:
I watched a professional fiberglass repairer in Annapolis restore a similar sized rotted section on a Pacific Seacraft. PS makes a very sound boat, but the owner had dropped something heavy on the side deck some time ago which caused a crack all the way through the top laminate layer. Left unrepaired, the crack let water enter the core and rot it out.
The repairer first made a mold of the gel coat non skid pattern with a rubber molding compound. He then cut the top layer out and gouged out the rotten balsa core. He replaced the balsa with new core and then glassed on a new top layer. He used the previously made mold to recreate the non skid pattern in the gel coat. After it was all done and $3000 later, it looked like new.
Given that you can cut the top layer in such a way as to not leave a seam in the gel coat pattern (or so your post seems to say), you can save a lot of skilled work by saving the top layer.
Whether you replace the core with balsa, plywood or foam seems to make little difference to me. What is the difference in having 4 sq ft of non rotting foam when the rest of the boat is cored with potentially rotting plywood?
So after replacing the core with the material of your choice, then taper back the edges of the removed panel and its surrounding material and glass the seams back together. The tough part will be matching the gel coat and making an undetectable joint. For this I would hire a pro- they can do things with gel coat that an amateur couldn't possibly do.
If by chance you can get to the bottom side of the rotted area, then you can do the same thing from the bottom where you usually don't have to worry about gel coat aesthetics. Much tougher to work overhead, but a lot easier to achieve a good result with amateur skills.
David
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