repaired cracked Glass hull, next?

[Fishin Impossible]

I had Cracked my hull, so I cut out all the floor and under cab storage compartments to fix the cracks from the inside, applied 3 layers of glass over that general area, recut all new stroage with marine ply and refit in and glassed into position and put a coat of the resin over the exposed wood and is now all dry, have then fixed cracks from outside using flowcoat and baloon putty now has dried also have patched a few chips and scrapes.....
I was going to then sand back the putty to make smooth mix, up some flow coat with catalyst and paint in onto the patched putty parts and then paint all the floor and compartments I have replaced.....
Am I going about this the right way or is there something diffrent that I can Do or you would reccommend (first Time Boat Owner)
Very keen to get back on the water as the weather is starting to get good!!!

[cormorant]

Not sure what size boat you have but it is important to find out why the hull cracked and resolve that issue.

If you hit something , trailer damage then you know but even then glass takes a massive hit if it was done right out of the factory before cracking. . If not you need to resolve what happened and why and correctly engineer a fix.

Depending on the crack and circumstances one sided repairs are never the best solution to get the strongest repair and bond but..........it may be good enough and last forever but.... if it doesn't are you going to sink? A lot depends on how well you prepared the area , ground it back and if your FG materials were fresh correct ones and correctly mixed

Stiffening one area will move a stress point to the edge of your glassing if the same spot is stressed again.

[Fishin Impossible]

Think it was to do with either:
Bashing through waves like I thought was on some rescue show or,
at the end of a big windy bashing back day the trailer went off the back of the ramp and maybe the back end of the trailer slapped the rear and tensioned it up near the bow and cracked it.
It is a 4.85m half cab
2 lessons learnt here put the nose down into the swell instead of trying to jump over them and slow down a bit and there is a drop off at the end of our ramp so watch our tides......
so in high site..... If I had slowed down on our journey home it would not have been such a low tide and I would be out Fishing RIGHT NOW!!!! hahahaha oh well lesson learnt

[IcyDuck]

As Cormorant as said, you need to make sure the cause of the damage has been identified and that the structural integrity of the hull has been maintained or restored. Was the crack right through the glass? Make sure there is no flex as it will re-appear if there is any movement. How big was the damaged area and was it along a stringer or strake? Not meaning to sound too alarmist but you need to make sure of this so you don't have a re-occurring issue and some peace of mind.

Regards Phil.

[Fishin Impossible]

The crack was on one of the (here we go for a discription) protruding lines that run the length of the boat, this is where the under cab compartments are so I removed the compartments the crack was not right through but you could see light were it yhad cracked after i had sanded it all back. the crack was maybe 2.5cm on either side of that protruding line, this was on both sides of the boat (port and star) By replacing all the compartments I have been told that this wioll give it structual integrity back as they are now glassed with about 4 coats of glass matt and resin each layerd let dry before the next. The old compartments I had cut out were pretty bad shape.
I spose what Im trying to get at now is.... Is flow coat used as like a paint to put on all the ply I have installed in the compartments and over the putty I have put back into the cracks and other chips?
Cheers

[Spaniard_King]

how far was the nearest support from the crack (inside the boat)

[IcyDuck]

The protruding lines that run the length of the hull are the planing strakes. Do the cracks run the entire length of them ? Must have been a pretty hard hit or two. Flow coat goes directly over the resin. Before applying, sand and clean any surface with acetone. The flow coat is brushed on then you can sand with a fine wet & dry and cut & polish if you want a smooth finish. I'm assuming the balloon putty you referred to is resin with micro balloons.

Regards Phil

[randell]

A few photos would have helped .
I used to a lot of FG repairs in the mining industry.......................................... ......
Boats are a bit different.....
It's amazingly strong stuff, as long as you have the right recipe, type of resin for the job.
I just put a new transom in my canoe, no wave jumping here with a 3.3 HP merc..........
But still it's gotta stick...

good luck
randell

[netmaker]

however you go dont forget to check the bilge pump before the maiden voyage!