I tore up the trailing edge on one of my daggers recently. I've got enough experience w/ glass & epoxy (and a little carbon) that I don't think that the repair itself will be too troublesome.
I plan to grind out the damage, which is about 2" high and 3/4" deep in the trailing edge, about a foot from the bottom, and vacuum some carbon in it, then fair.
My question: Do I need to cover it in gel coat? Considering that it is in a spot that rarely sees the sun, I'm wondering if I need to do anything at all to the fairing compound after fairing it? I hate working with polyester resin.
Should I put a single thin covering of non-thinned epoxy over it?
or just treat the whole daggerboard w/ a poliglow-style UV inhibitor?
or re-gelcoat?
Any advice is welcome. Thanks
Rob
Anything you put over it for a finish is just cosmetic...if you don't care, leave it raw. Polyester resins are UV stable and, although it yellows, epoxy is structural stable with UV exposure. Heck, on small repairs, I hit it with a little krylon. Vacuum bagging is probably overkill on that too (did I just say that?).
To repair those dings, I mix up some finely minced glass fibers (either bought that way or self made) and fill the void with that putty. I tape a hotel key cards to both sides of the board to form the flat sides to leave very little fairing.
