Gunwale Damage

[Alyosius]

So, they say no plan survives contact with the enemy, and most don't survive contact with reality.

My first problem was one of light, and temperature. Unfortunately after I got away from work, bought the appropriate things and got out to the boat, I didn't have alot of spare light to work in. Also the temperature was falling and I needed enough time for it to partially cure before it dropped below 10.

So I simply set about preparing both the screw holes. It was at this point I discovered problem number 2. There are multiple screws that, while not anywhere near as bad, some have lost their grip on reality or at least on my boat.

This leaves me with a dilemma. Do I remove the rub rails completely?
I'm thinking probably yes, they are in desperate need of some sanding and oiling and general TLC. However this presents me with two problems. 1: there is no way I can get them ashore from my mooring without getting them wet and 2: I can't put them in the car to take home.

So for tomorrow I plan to repair the original two holes - they are the ones most in need. After that will come up with a plan of attack for the rub rails.

Did get to see a nice sunset though:

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[Alyosius]

So after a much more successful morning I'm sitting aboard Galini waiting for the epoxy to harden (since the pot has gone solid I'm confident the repair will to)

I had a relatively narrow window to do this in today, with temperature again being my enemy. However the process seems to have gone relatively well.

Firstly I taped off the repair area. After seeing what happened to Troppo's handle I decided to tape below the repair and layer the tape up to the repair. The theory being if it got under one piece of tape, it was less likely to get under the next one, so there would only be a small run.

Taped off

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After that I mixed up 50ml of the epoxy and brushed it into the repair before adding the filler until it reached a honey consistency and spooned some into the repair. Some escaped over the edge but was caught by the tape. I count that as a win.

Epoxy poured

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Now the pot has set but still waiting for the repair to set, this is of course expected. Even if this isn't a perfect repair, it should have at least sealed the fibreglass so I don't need to worry about water getting in, which was my biggest concern.

I inspected the rest of the gunwale and there are definitely a few more spots that need repairing, but these were the most serious and the other ones will definitely need the rub rail removed. So problem for another day.

Thanks for all the advice, while I may not have done a great job, it's certainly been much cheaper and a much more interesting learning experience.

[Troppo]

Fantastic, Alyosius, great job.

I loved your sunset picture in your previous post and enjoyed seeing the pics of your repair.

In my opinion you have done well, you worked out how you wanted to do it and you gave it a go. Next time you use epoxy it will be easier as you are gaining experience.

cheers

Louis

[Alyosius]

Well I got out to Galini to take a photo of the repairs this afternoon.

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If you ignore the left over painters tape that I couldn't get off (but should come off when I sand it before painting) I think it has turned out well.

Thanks for all the help and advice. I'm really glad I was able to do this myself and get away with not paying for the dockyards time.

Next steps will be to remove the rubrail completely and do this to all the attachment points, the reattach the rubrail with nuts and bolts. Hopefully this will stop this from happening again in the future.

[Shaun]

Good work Alyosius.
They say epoxy doesn't like UV from the sun, but I don't think the UV critically harms the epoxy structurally , just turns it sort of a milky opaque colour.
I left a couple of repaired holes on the deck on my boat unpainted to test the UV, & it did go opaque but was still has hard as a rock.
Main thing its waterproof, as your repair is.
cheers

[lockie]

The opaque layer will stop UV rays from penetrating and thus protect the rest.