This message serves as my intro to the group!

I'm more or less new to sailing. So I figured I'd buy a boat that was about the same age as me, a 45 year old Sol Cat 18! What could go wrong....

If anyone has any suggestions on how to repair two large 4-6" long cracks perpendicular to the hull emanating from the edges of the trunk that would be great. Also I will have to install 1" x 4" bit of fiberglass into the gaping hole in the lower middle section of the trunk.

I've found some good stuff online to start with, but if anyone wants to share some helpful links or experience it would be welcome.

Also, if anyone has an extra solcat 18 dagger board laying around they want to part with that would be great.

Thanks all for making / maintaining this community online!

Welcome! Sorry you had this happen. Folks here will give good advice specific to your boat. My general $0.02 advice is always the same. Clean well, use West System 105 epoxy, and some glass fibers. It’s probably more important to use only as much epoxy as needed to wet out the glass than what specific type of glass you use. Others here can recommend the best cloth better than I can. I like WS products because they make a great physical bond. The other thing to be aware of is that the boards experience very high lateral loads that are transmitted to the hull and dagger board slots. This could inform any repair. You’ll be back on the water soon!

Welcome, and ouch! I also repair my boats sometimes, so yeah. Two comments: take a bunch of pictures of the proposed repair, and consult here (where people are amazing), and perhaps on the fix-it forum at Sailing Anarchy (as the name implies, bring a thick skin and ignore abuse, people are knowledgeable but not amazing there).

+1 on traphappy's recommendations. My additional cents are:

- use release fabric, it improves the end results 10x
- mix layers of carbon and glass in structural areas where forces mean there'll be flexing

Sounds like a soft hull where delamination is occurring between the two layers of glass as the foam deteriorates. Common in older Sol Cats. If you feel softness in the decks of either hull when pressing down with two hands about 30 lbs I would not continue with a repair. Look for another hull. No daggers on the classifieds and they are very scarce as are all parts for the boat. Might be time to start over, using the parts you have to cover the costs of purchase. Pete

Where are you located? Check craigslist and Facebook marketplace for boats and parts. There is a new dagger board listed in NY.

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Pete Knapp
Schodack landing,NY
Goodall Viper,AHPC Viper,Nacra I20
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Unless you are a die hard solcat loyalist, you may want to see what you can get for it and go after another more common 18 footer with better parts availability. Some decent Prindle 18s in my area, No more broken daggers or trunks

Thanks all for your suggestion and feedback. I bought the boat to learn on, but wont have to much time for repairs, at least until winter. If I don't see an easy way to get it going again it may just be the end of it's line. But lots of other boats out there to have. No luck on a replacement board yet, I see some people say nacra's fit but may need a wee trim. The hulls seem(ed) solid, but the board was not....

Maybe he will ship it.

https://syracuse.craigsli…oard-new/6934994759.html

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Pete Knapp
Schodack landing,NY
Goodall Viper,AHPC Viper,Nacra I20
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I also have a pair of Solcat 18 dagger board I would like to part with.

https://www.thebeachcats.com/pictures?g2_itemId=130001&g2_GALLERYSID=6e14c4bee79ef386ab2eab0ea0035bd2

Pic's are in the beachcat Gallery
I have several other parts as well if you are interested.

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Jeff O
N5.0
solcat 18(sold),
N5.2,
H16
Camarillo CA
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Hi Jeff, that's great, I'll send you an e-mail!