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Fiberglass dinghy hull repair question

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ilya980

New member
Hi,

I have a fiberglass dinghy with the damage in the bottom. There is a large hole in the keel near the stern. How do I repair it? Thanks.
 

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Easy. Assuming that hole is 12” long.
Buy a litre of West System epoxy, & about 5’ of 2” 6-8oz fibreglass “tape”, & 4’ of 6” tape. (You can also buy regular sheet fibreglass & cut strips, regular scissors cut it easily. I just find the tape keeps a cleaner edge on that type of repair. I’ve done it several times on the keels of catamaran hills).
The idea is to end up with around 10 layers on that bottom keel, with the last 5-6 folding over the keel & laying flat outwards. Each of the last final 4 layers extends slightly further out.
Also buy the appropriate amount of hardener. Just get regular hardener, you dont need slow hardener.
Sand the edges beside the damage down to clean material. Cut a strip of milk carton & secure it in the hole, about 1/4” deeper than the bottom of the keel. This simply acts as a form for you to lay wetted glass on.
Sand the good part of the keel back 3-4”, your patch will start on solid keel & go to the end. Precut your strips, (test fit them), mix up some epoxy, wet out 3-4 layers, place them, let them go “green”, (not fully cured, about an hour), test fit a few more layers, mix a bit more epoxy. USE THE LEAST EPOXY YOU CAN TO FULLY WET THE GLASS, EPOXY IS ONLY FILLER, STRENGTH IS IN THE GLASS. As long as there are no “white spots in the glass, it wetted.
Spend a few hours on a Google search of fibreglass repair, there are tons of good videos on using the West System. You don’t need the measuring pumps, as long as you have some sort of small plastic containers that allow you to measure accurately. I use a veterinary syringe to simply measure water, & mark the levels on a couple of little yoghurt containers. Then you can just pour the epoxy & hardener into the lines on the marked containers, mix THOROUGHLY, - (wear disposable gloves). Wet out the glass while it’s laid on something like a piece of flat plastic,or milk carton. That allows you to wet out the glass with the least amount of epoxy.
Anyway, it’s a really easy job, go to West Epoxy systems, & read their usage manuals. If you do a crappy job in the 1st layers , you can sand things to the correct dimensions, even if it’s only smoothing bumps. For the final 2 layers, I’d mix in some colloidal silica, it sets up hard as rock, & will protect the keel when it gets dragged on the beach or rocks.
 
105 and 206 will work very well. Read INSTRUCTIONS, found in the menu.

Epoxy Resins & Hardeners | WEST SYSTEM

West System stocks versatile epoxy systems that can be used for everything from basic to high-performance composites and long-lasting repairs.
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Your biggest challenge will be wrapping the fibreglass in the complex curve at the very end of that hole where it has to fold up to the transom and around the sides of the keel. You could make a negative form out of cut cardboard, milk, carton, and fold it into the proper shape press that over your first few layers to keep the matting in the right form. The waxed cardboard won’t stick to the fibreglass epoxy.
 
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