Evaluating spider cracks

[nysail]

I am looking at a Typhoon that has quite a few spider cracks in the gelcoat cockpit area. It seems to be only cosmetic but I wanted to have other opinions on the subject. Thank you. Photos attached.

[shavdog]

Depends on the size of the cracking...I looked at a cd22 couple of days ago and on the front deck it had some cracking that in my mind was larger than the typical spider cracks and sure enough when I stepped on it water oozed out....that is an indication of core damage...the fix is to remove the top skin, replace the wet core and reassemble...I haven't done that ....the minor spider cracking can be covered up with interlux interdeck non skid beige but you will have to redo it every two yrs or so because they come back...it will look like new for awhile....the spider cracking seems to show up on most cape dory sailboats....you can do a search on here and find out all kinds of information...my cd 22 had it on the cockpit floor and some on the deck...pay attention to it, do what I said and you will at least keep it under control...that second picture of yours, I would expand the nonskid area to include some of that...I would dremel out the bad ones and fill and sand before applying nonskid....the real fix can be pretty serious .....

[PortTack]

It's hard to get a sense of scale with those photos, are those the only ones you have?

[Dick Villamil]

Definitely dreml out each crack - then fill with epoxy and filler, make sure the dreml creates a sufficiently wide and deep area so the epoxy can grab onto the area beneath the gelcoat. You may even find the cracks are in the epoxy layer. The second photo looks pretty serious and the gelcoat may just chip away as you dreml the cracks out. I have used a diamond tip cone and a ceramic cone tool and both work OK except the diamond tip lasts much longer. I did this to my CD10 and after 8 years it still looks like new. I also did it to the hull of my Typhoon and no cracks have reoccurred after 10 years.

[drysuit2]

Cape Dory's are famous for "spider web" cracks, or crazing in the gel-coat. This is because of an attempt to over build CD's, and in most cases the gel-coat was thicker than you would find on newer fiberglass boats. Fiberglass flexes. Thick Gel-coat not as much. So most of the crazing is cosmetic.

Resist the temptation to start grinding away. Clean and monitor the crazing just in case there is water penetration or excessive movement. My boat has had crazing like that for 20 years, and I've been sailing her since 1986.

Cape Dory's are beautiful boats. So we instinctively want to maintain them to showroom Bristol quality. It's all about what you want out of your boat. Me...I've been doing glass-work since I was nine, so I'd rather go sailing.

That said: find the Old Salts in your area. Let them take a look at it. A little flex ain't so bad. A lot of water penetration into the balsa core..Yea that might need some attention.

[Paul D.]

Spider crack repair is tedious but it can be done if you are wanting to restore to a like new quality. There are videos on the subject likely on youtube and maybe Jamestown but the basic method is to clean the area, take a dental pick or similar tool and scrape to widen the cracks, clean with acetone, fill with gel coat repair that you have tediously matched the color to your deck or just use epoxy and microballons if painting, sand, fill again if needed, sand etc.

The good point was made about deciding whether they are just cosmetic or if they are allowing moisture into the deck core. From the photo I would say cosmetic and the comments about CD's having heavier gel coat layers are true. Our 33 has some gel coat deck cracks that have not changed in 17 years and everything is solid. So you could focus on higher priorities and get back to this job if indeed you are going for a Bristol restoration.

Good luck!