I had a lovely day today to perform some needed gel coat repairs to my boat. Having never attempted gel coat repair in the past, I felt totally confident in my abilities to handle this simple job. Having already prepped the areas to be repaired, I opened up the can (pun intended) and started working on the boat. While the gel coat is drying, I thought I would sit down and share some thoughts for anyone considering gel coat repairs. If you wish to do a totally crappy job on your cat and you have entire day to waste and like flushing money down the toilet, please follow these simple steps.

1. Pick a very windy day to apply your new gel coat. A minimum of 20kts should do nicely. A great time is right after a strong cold front moves through. There is no feeling like the one you have when you can pour something sideways. Grass particles and bugs sticking to the wet gel coat on the boat add a splash of color to one's boring white hulls.

2. Keeping the wind requirement in mind, if you have a red (or other dark colored) truck, park it as close as possible to the job site. Wind direction is also important here as you want the truck downwind from your boat and your mixing area. This gives your truck an attractive white speckling that will probably be nearly impossible to remove. You will be the envy if the neighborhood.

3. No real man (or woman) should need to use gloves for this job. Getting gel coat on your doorknobs and telephone will help you remember the event long after you have finished. Sanitizing one's hands with acetone does not do a very good job of removing sticky gel coat, but is very good at extracting every one of those nasty lipid molecules from you hands.

4. If you wish to have a 20 second working time when you have reached the second half of the can of gel coat, do not do a thorough job of mixing up the can before use. The good folks at West Marine will be happy to supply you with another can, and may even give you a discount (NOT).

I hope these tips have given you some insights into making a complete mess of your repair. I was not lucky enough to completely ruin my boat; maybe you will be more successful than I. :)

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Eric C

Force 5 project boat
Unnamed

Previous boat
1980 Nacra 5.2
"Double Vision"
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Oh man I am laughing and feeling your pain. Really sorry to hear about the experience but I hope to learn from it. How were you applying the gel coat?

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David
Memphis, TN
'84 Hobie 18
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popsicle stick and putty spreader, in between wind gusts. got the buildup I was looking for. most parts hardened now. will try to sand tomorrow. looks messy as i had to build up on the "keel". large area of gel coat missing from beaching for 30 years. Hopefully will be able to shape with wet sanding. Thought about epoxy, but the west system was said to dry to a reddish-brown color- I would have had to paint the boat afterwards. also routed out and filled numerous scratches and small cracks. Thankfully, no soft spots. From what i have read, the earlier models of 5.2 , like mine, had solid glass hulls, so no core to rot. Still need to touch up rudders and daggerboards, but not an immediate priority. Boat is currently upside-down in my yard. I'm sure there are spots to do topsides; will get to those later. Fortunately, my hulls are white, so I didn't need to color match; probably would have screwed that up as well. I'll try to remember to take pictures.

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Eric C

Force 5 project boat
Unnamed

Previous boat
1980 Nacra 5.2
"Double Vision"
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I feel your pain. A bunch of years ago a small daughter wanted her almost new bunkbed changed to white. Being a good dad I set things up in the garage, prepped, & started spraying. I left the garage door up about a foot, for ventilation. My new spruce green Sienna was parked just outside, & it escaped me that fine spray would drift under, out, & up.
For the rest of its life there were 4 oak leaves faintly visible on the hood. Kind of like a kids spatter paint project.

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Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
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hyperope

Thought about epoxy, but the west system was said to dry to a reddish-brown color- I would have had to paint the boat afterwards.

West System has a white pigment additive (501). The call it a "painting base", but I was thinking about trying it on the bottoms of my hull where the gel coat has worn down. I have no idea how close it is to the original gelcoat color, but it may be worth a try. UV tolerance shouldn't be a big issue since it's on the bottoms, but who knows...just a thought.

FWIW, I did some small spots on my H18 using Marine Tex. It sanded out and polished just like the surrounding gel coat. The white color is close enough to the original that you have to really get close (less than 2-3 feet for my eyes) to know anything was done.

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Jeff R
'88 H18 "Jolly Mon"
'10 C2 USA1193
NE IN / SE MI
cramsailing.com
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This thread reminds me of a saying I've heard over the years. "Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions." I too have considerable experience.

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Dave Wilson
Hobie 16, Hobie 14
Tampa, FL
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flaco

hyperope

Thought about epoxy, but the west system was said to dry to a reddish-brown color- I would have had to paint the boat afterwards.

West System has a white pigment additive (501). The call it a "painting base", but I was thinking about trying it on the bottoms of my hull where the gel coat has worn down. I have no idea how close it is to the original gelcoat color, but it may be worth a try. UV tolerance shouldn't be a big issue since it's on the bottoms, but who knows...just a thought.

Please let me know how this works. Next year, I plan to re-gel everything by spraying, but would like a bit more buildup on the bottom first.

--
Eric C

Force 5 project boat
Unnamed

Previous boat
1980 Nacra 5.2
"Double Vision"
--