General info regarding chips, scratches to fiberglass

N

NickyD98

New member
Hi there! I’m a relatively new CDory owner (Angler 19) and very new to fiberglass boats. I found this little scratch on the bottom of the hull(just slightly in the gel coat). How many fellow CDory owners end up with chips etc? I know it’s not good to get the fiberglass wet, but I’m sure not every fiberglass boat is in mint condition either. Thank you for any advice. I’m finding myself paranoid about chips and scratches worrying if one that’s unnoticed goes it will lead to a very costly repair. I’ve had bad luck getting little chips etc from rocks on the highway. I’ve never had any of the damage occur in the water.
 
NickyD98":348kz1bw said:
Hi there! I’m a relatively new CDory owner (Angler 19) and very new to fiberglass boats. I found this little scratch on the bottom of the hull(just slightly in the gel coat). What’s your opinion on it and how many fellow CDory owners end up with chips etc? I know it’s not good to get the fiberglass wet, but I’m sure not every fiberglass boat is in mint condition either. Thank you for any advice. I’m finding myself paranoid about chips and scratches worrying if one that’s unnoticed goes it will lead to a very costly repair. I’ve had bad luck getting little chips etc from rocks on the highway. I’ve never had any of the damage occur in the water.
Click to expand...

IMO, chips in the fiberglass on your boat are like dings you get in your car over time. You can obsess about them and fix every one as they occur or you can accept them as a fact of life and not worry about it.

That said, as long as the chip is only in the gelcoat it is cosmetic. If it goes through to the fiberglass mat you should do something about it to prevent water intrusion. You can repair it with gelcoat or seal it with something else like epoxy.

There are plenty of videos on gelcoat repair on YouTube. There is a certain amount of artistry involved to get the color to match. Experience helps here.

Be aware that for small chips you will have to make the "wound" bigger in order to get good adhesion with the new gelcoat.

My boat has its share of dock rash. Some I fixed, others I let go. Every so often I make a day of repairing the dings in the gelcoat.

One thing to look at is the bottom of the boat. You can hit a variety of things in the water and may or may not register a hit. The trailer can also wear away the gelcoat or cause dings when launching or retreiving. If you keep your boat on a trailer a periodic crawl underneath looking for damage is something I suggest you do.

In my case, I've never noticed any damage from trailering. Got a number of dings from operation on the water though.
 
So, whattsup with ''dings an' things''? Or,
"Why doesn't my new stuff stay looking that way forever?"

ssobol got it: it's "a fact of life"

(aka The Second Law of Thermodynamics).
For a spontaneous process, the entropy (aka 'chaos') of the universe increases.
Click to expand...

And, it never decreases.

Aye.
 
Back
Top