:-(

Wow. Looks like I'll be learning about fiberglass. Guess I won't turn in the library book by Vaitses. Here's some questions:

"grind through the resin rich glass without grinding too much of the fibers" I grind off the white gelcoat and get down to the caramel colored resin impregnated glass. Does the glass mesh have a thick layer of resin on top of it as well as in the void spaces between the mesh? Otherwise, don't see how I could avoid hitting the glass.

"where the crack is grind all the way down to the core" What's the 'core'? I guess I'd know when I hit the flange ;-) So you mean the fiberglass mesh?

"Cover the sucker and heat it if you can to dry the core and the split in the flange." Looks like I'll need to clear the garage. Or I could put a clamp or 2 on the hull to open the crack a bit, then use a hair drier? I also read someplace where they had stuff that would cure underwater. Not sure if this was epoxy or polyester. It would be hard to tell if the crack was dry inside.


"inject epoxy with microballons" The cracks are hairline, maybe as thick as your fingernail. I've got some syringes and maybe could use one. I've also heard of mixing microspheres with Cabosil.

"Release cloth" What's this, a dry strip of glass?

"use non air inhibited Gelcoat" With polyester resin? I thought polyester didn't bind to epoxy. But the other options would be to paint the epoxy?

Last few questions:

What type of mat would you use?

Also, since I've already epoxied over this area, could I put on another thicker coat, maybe with milled glass filler or something and see how it holds? I wouldn't want to get into an unsafe situation on the water, though.

Thanks so much for your insight, Eric :-)

Time for breakfast,
Danno