Help, I have sprung a leak in my port pontoon. There is a THIN approx 1/32" skin forming part of the centerboard well hole. We were hauling ass 15 to 20 on Veterans Day when the thin fiberglass split, which made for a very exciting long afternoon. Made it back to shore, life is good.. Question, does anyone know the best way to fix this problem. There is a structural(?) baffle plate I can see looking from the back access port just before the centerboard area. I am assuming there will be one in front of the centerboard area also. My plan right now is to cut the pontoon on the top so I can remove the baffle plates, both sides of centerboard, install the centerboard in place and epoxy fiberglass the whole inside of this centerboard well area using the existing skin as a form. If this sounds good or bad please let me know as this is way to good of a boat to screw it up.

Thanks,
Dutch
Titusville, Fl

I had a similar problem and fixed it this way. I took a long piece of wood about the size of a paint stirer tapered the end and attached sandpaper and sanded away the gelcoat in the damaged area. Poured acetone on the area to clean it. You can use either Marine Tex or mix up some resin depending on the size of the repair. I used the same stick that I used to sand to apply the mixture by taping a small paint brush on the end, after it cured I sanded again. Still working fine and not leaking. There was no way I was going to remove the deck section. The things that you refer to as baffles are bulk heads and are structional and I would not consider removing them. Hope this helped

I would try to find a profession shop to do the repair unless you are very experienced with this type of work.

Do not use Marine Tex for this. It may get harder than a witch's heart, but it is not a good application. Technically, it is only a filler, not an adhesive.

The only centerboard boat I have repaired was a sol cat, I turned the boat over on some saw horses and was able to effect a strong repair.

Unless you are experienced at glass repair, would not go through the upper deck.

I would suggest going to www.marinetex.com and read what they say about the product. It is much more than just a filler and is an excellent way to repair the center board well.

Use it as you will... it is a filler. It is a different hardness than resins and will expand and contract at a different rate over time, establishing a notch condition. As the hulls are stressed, the difference of the two hardnesses will work against each other.

Nothing will do better than the type of resin/glass type designed into the hulls.

I am a huge fan of Marine Tex. Great for repairing rudders, dagger boards, hull boo boos and a suberb bottom wearstrip on our pebbley beach. Its good for what ails ya!

I have to agree however that the work being described here is not what it is made for.

Thanks for the good advice, I think I will demast,turn boat over and carefully epoxy fiberglass the area, I will probably need to use the marine tex also as there is that area where I stuck my knife in to drain the water out of the poontoon but that's another story. Hope to be back on the water soon... Thanks everybody

Dutch
Titusville, Fl