Gelcoat cracking

[Walt Bilofsky]

One of the few problems I've found with my CD 30 powerboat is cracking in the gelcoat, particularly aroundthe corners of the cockpit and at stress points such asnear the base of the ladder to the flybridge.
The salesman who sold me the boat said that this is due totoo thick a gelcoat layer. He said he had tried to tellAndy Vavolotis that if 20 mils of gelcoat was good, that didn'tmean 40 mils was twice as good. It is true that gelcoat isbrittle and will crack if it is too thick.
In any event, just about all of the 11 Cape Dorys at our float-inin August had similar cracking, which made us all feel better.
My questions: Has anyone ever experienced a problem from this,such as water penetrating into deck coring? And is there anything thatcan or should be done about it, either cosmetically or otherwise?


bilofsky@ix.netcom.com

[Tony Raymond]

I have a CD 28 power boat and I have the same type of gelcoat cracks. They all seem to be around stress areas, the base of the ladder, corners in the cockpit, around the fuel fills and even at the cabin to deck transition. When I bought the boat 2 yrs ago (it's an 1989), the surveyor found some moisture content , useing one of those electronic probe things, around those areas that were cracked. His observation was that they were the only place on the boat with any measureable moisture content and the readings were not what he considers a problem. His conclusion was not to worry to much about it, but I may want to try sealing with some thinned polyester resin to get it to flow into the cracks. He also commented that he has almost never seen a fiberglass boat older than a year that didn't have gelcoat cracks.
For what it's worth.
Tony Raymond



raymond@babagi.enet.dec.com

[Kim Richards]

I hear it comes from the Gelcoat being too thick,
'if alittle is good, more is better'
Cracking is commen at tight bends and any place
a screw goes thru the gelcoat. One way to deal with
the screw hole problem is to counter sink the hole.
Filling the counersink with sealer improves the seal
also.
Kim Richards



Williwaw28@aol.com