Its like looking at a resto, vintage car or rod build job.
You see stuff, dont know what is underneath.
If you know possibilities and from experience know what to expect.
If on ponders on what is underneath one will be intimidated and move on to take up needle point or crochet.
So what would I be doing here..?
Im sure this is the question in the back of Helios mind
OK I would get out the dremmel, or 4" grinder (carefully) and remove the cracked and flaking gelcoat.. only
Look at what is underneath.
Is it wet (i dont think it will be)?
Is there a crack or white stress marks in the glass?
This will give you a damn good idea what the problem is , how serious and what to do next.
Boating season is almost over for most ppl..if wasnt then if certain things can be seen (or not there), one can seal it up finish the season.
If there looks to be serious cracking of the glass underneath.. no biggie
This is the advantage of glass boats, the lower end home handyman on tight budge can fix build repair damn near anything correctly at little cost.
So lets assume its opened up and there is a quite a serious crack in the glass layer underneath.
Hire borrow a engine lifter, disconnect the engine , fuel lines cables etc and lift off.. 30 mins and 2 ppl for 5 of them (engine mounting bolts) lift engine off and lay on a pallet or something with wheels one can move it easy with.
Should I have to say masks, glasses ? or are ppl here that thick they cant think that one for themselves.. sry for a dig at PC here... If you didnt think of that .. take up needle point.
Now open up the war wound with a 4" grinder.. very slow and careful watching what you are removing.
You grind back any gelcoat, and glass underneathe that chips off easy or is damaged.
Same as going back to good steel doing a rust patch on a vintage car resto.
To me.. without seeing it opened up, I would geuss the damage is restricted to the glass underneath with little if any damage to the core its self.
If so its a just a matter of establishing if the resin the boat is built out of is epoxy or isophaltic resin
Isophatic is NOT COMPATABLE
over Epoxy
Epoxy is compatible over iso.
If just gelcoat and glass damage..
With the 4" grind out to good glass a rounded u with the shape of the grinding disk... like V for welding steel. to good clean dry base
Spend about $40 (??) on a pot of resin and some chop Spend repair in a repair kit from burnso or smartmarine or Miter 10.
Mix up resin (exactly as per instructions), paint some on the ground out area, wet out out the pre cut to shape chop stand patches.. enough to fill the wound.
Lay in and push out all the air.
Lay in to just below the original surface height.
If shaging is an issue hold in place using strips of wide masking tape hoozonally from the bottom pulled tight across the wound.
Once nearly fully cured, hard, remove tape.. if still low apply another layer or so to build up to just below original level.
Let cure.. till next day is best
Touch off any high spots with grinder and roughed up any low spots dremmel works best here.
Get a pot of gelcoalt, mix and paint in over the glass building up to orgnal level and stop sagging with the masking tape again.
Let harden.. touch with grinder or dremmel any high spots and fill in the lows with more gelcoat and masking tape.
Let harden. and block off with sand paper for appearance sake.
If transom internal structure is ok the whole job done in a few lots of an hr or so.. and well under $100.
And while at it you may like to touch a few gelcoat chips on hull etc, and repair them with any left over gelcoat still on the mixing board from the main repair.
The itch.. its gone next day.. there are a lot of very minor things in life far worse.. gloves while grinding..dust mask takes care of the sides of the nose...collar up the back of the neck....the rest harden up.. u just spent less than $100 and a total about 4hrs tops .. balance that with a little itch for a day at the most?
Hope this helps, puts things in a bit of perspective.
OH and the repair will far far stronger than before the damage was done...