I agree about just redoing the bottoms. With my Prindle 18, I taped off the offending portions on the bottoms, roughed them up, then applied gelcoat w/ a foam brush. (I used the West Marine mix that sets up in air, so no covering was needed.) Once that dried, I wet-sanded it to smooth it out and to taper the edges in w/ the rest of the hull. The result was great, and it lasted two seasons until continued beaching started to wear through. No problem--just redo again. The total repair probably took 2 hours, including the sanding. Done deal.

Hey, my philosophy has become this: Don't put mega $$ into making a boat so perfect that anytime it gets a ding or scratch you have an emotional fit. Instead, sail it hard and give it some TLC as needed. As an old farmer once told me, "I've never had anything in life that was quite 100%." Pretty it up but not so much that you can't beach it w/out grimacing.