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underwater dock.........and I hit it


board brained

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well took 6 other canadians out for the sunset and to celebrate our Gold in Hockey......

no more than 300 yards off the launch, I am doing about 20 when I hear and feel and massive explosion (it was heard back on the dock) the boat shutters, I come off the throttle and see a bunch of plywood and what looks like timbers floating behind us. No more than 2 minutes they sink back down. must have been just under the water and the water was like glass and I saw nothing

so I open the front ballast, no water coming in, open the vdrive, no water, open the engine and no water. Put the boat back in gear take off, no vibration, wake is good, did a couple turns again no issue. drop the wedge, no issue

take the boat back and pull it out. Fins, shaft prop nothing touched. get it home in the garage grab a light and go under and check every inch. hear is where my luck runs out. about 6 inches before the fins is about 4 inches of chips and a long scratch. I think it is pretty minor and some gel coat work can easily fix it. one of the worse chips in the middle of it you can see a black dot. what does this mean? question I have it is going to take me weeks to get it in to have it fixed, can it go in the water? we have my oldests bday party next week and we are taking a bunch of her freinds out on it for an "amazing race" thing........

and I assume that because it is on the peak this is something that needs to be professinally fixed, I did gel coat work on my other hull not sure about this

any advice appreciated

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...one of the worse chips in the middle of it you can see a black dot. what does this mean?

Gelcoat is sprayed into the mold in "layers" to achieve the different color patterns. once all of the colors are in they spray black gelcoat over all of it to get uniform color. The fiberglass is then laid over the gelcoat.

The fact that you see black just means that you chipped through at least the outer layers of gelcoat. At the very least I would have it inspected before putting it back in the water to make sure that the fiberglass isn't compromised. It shouldn't be, the glass along the spine of the keel is pretty thick and can take quite a smack but I'd still have it inspected by someone qualified. Assuming no fiberglass damage...if you can't get the gelcoat fixed professionally in time for your event you could patch it with Marine-Tex Epoxy (or similar) and being as it's below the waterline no one would ever see your patch (assuming that your hull is white,of course).

Good luck.

Edited by NorCaliBu
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well took 6 other canadians out for the sunset and to celebrate our Gold in Hockey......

no more than 300 yards off the launch, I am doing about 20 when I hear and feel and massive explosion (it was heard back on the dock) the boat shutters, I come off the throttle and see a bunch of plywood and what looks like timbers floating behind us. No more than 2 minutes they sink back down. must have been just under the water and the water was like glass and I saw nothing

Where did you launch today? Indian Arm has been beautiful looking the last few weeks, if I could just man-up to the cold......

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I used a product similar to the Marine Tex listed above for some minor glass repair and it is solid. Sounds like you got lucky.

yep, that is what my wife said last night as she heard and say it from the dock......there is only the one small area which a circle just bigger than a pin head is showing black, the rest looks cosmetic.......

first dig hurts

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Where did you launch today? Indian Arm has been beautiful looking the last few weeks, if I could just man-up to the cold......

Yep, Cates Park...water was flat. Funny thing I had just looked at the tide chat on my iphone and was aware we are having big swings so was watching for stuff in water...........

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be aware that a boat repair shop is going to want to grind 8" around the 'blem' to insure there isn't hidden damage.

I am struggling with this, the more I look at it the more it looks just cosmetic, chipping, even the little dot of black is no bigger than 1/8 inch in diameter.... that is the biggest and it is not deep, it is right on the crown or peak, can not see anything else anywhere.......

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The crappy part is that if there is cracks in the fiberglass that don't show up (NOW) in the gelcoat... It is highly possible that down the road in a week, month, year, 5 years, stress fractures may start to show up in the gelcoat.

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I'm kind of in the same boa....situation as you. I hit a rock literally 2 minutes after my first ever ride. It skinned the prop up and then later I found spider cracking around the strut. It appears to be only cosmetic but several people have told me to get it repaired. So I had the dealership quote it.....$970!!! for about 10 cracks less than a foot long!! Needless to say I will be learning how to repair gel coat.

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I'm kind of in the same boa....situation as you. I hit a rock literally 2 minutes after my first ever ride. It skinned the prop up and then later I found spider cracking around the strut. It appears to be only cosmetic but several people have told me to get it repaired. So I had the dealership quote it.....$970!!! for about 10 cracks less than a foot long!! Needless to say I will be learning how to repair gel coat.

that sucks.......I was lucky as I was just coming up on plane, and the wood blew apart as it most likely had been in the water for some time. I am going to be checking the hull I am sure for a while. No marks on the skegg (sp?) which I now it had to have hit, prop, shaft and rudder all clean. Spoke to the dealership this am, they told me to put silicon in the one chip where it is showing the black o protect it from water and they will inspect in a couple weeks when it is in for other work.

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