Dealing with dings and holes

(first published 21st May 2005)

Here's Lugg upside down with the dings inked round with a Magic Marker to remind me where to excavate and where to put the filler. Some of the pits in his surface are just where years of badly applied paint have cracked and flaked - these disappear when the old paint is removed, a process I've nearly finished; and some are the result of past collisions and crunches - sometimes just cracks which need raking out, sometimes holes which go right through into the glass cloth in the laminate. This sort need a bit more preparation; rake out all the loose stuff, then drip in polyester resin to replace that which is missing; sand smooth when it's gone off, and fill and fair with car body filler. So far this process has taken me about six hours and I reckon I've got about another four hours to do before the first coat of waterproof primer is on and I can see all the minor imperfections that will need attention before the gloss is applied. You can see from the photo above that Lugg's had a hard life. More dings than you can shake a big stick at.



And here's the repair I had to make to the back end of the hull after I discovered there was a crack which led straight through the bottom of the skeg from underwater into the aft buoyancy tank. I had to enlarge the crack when removing all the loose material before I could repair it. You can see the resulting cavity under the layers of GRP I applied - it's the two black bits in the middle of the upper surface. No wonder the boatyard drilled a drainhole from the aft buoyancy tank into the cockpit!

It seemed immoderately to please Jack, my 87 year-old retired farmer neighbour, to see the hole. He said: "You need one of them so you don't have to bail, Boy!" Then he laughed quite a lot. I didn't - I was up to my ears in polyester resin and chopped strand mat fixing it. Anyway. there are three layers of one ounce cloth over the hole - about the same thickness as the original hull minus the white gelcoat. There will also be a wooden rubbing strip glued to the bottom of the skeg - in fact all along the keel - so there will be plenty of material between the water and me.

The weather's forecast to be lousy tomorrow, so I feel a trip to Wroxham coming on to buy rowlocks and their sockets. And some waterproof primer. And anything else that comes to mind. Just like Tom Dudgeon at the beginning of Coot Club - except older and fatter; much older.