Hull Crazing (spider cracks)

[Scott B.]

I am revisiting a topic from 10 years ago regarding crazing (spider cracks) on the hull of my CD25. Back then, the favorite answer to that question for deck crazing was Capt. Tolley's. But this crazing is on the hull where these products may run before they have set. Is there another product I can use for these vertical surfaces? I recently saw in a trade mag the product MagicEzy Hairline Fix (Magicezy.com). Has anyone used it? I am looking for something that will solidly adhere to the cracks and seal them as best as possible. Although appearance is important, I am more interested in the structural integrity of the seal and the waterproofing. And I hate the standard repair of Dremel tooling the cracks larger and filling with epoxy. That seems so old school. There must be sealers/epoxies available today to do the job.

[mgphl52]

I have not used it (yet...) but from the "100% money back guarantee" and the list of marine distributors, I plan to give it a go! http://magicezy.com/buy-online-usa/

[Markst95]

Old school is the tried and true method. Throw some colloidal silica in the epoxy, mix to peanut butter consistancy and it shouldn't run.

[Steve Laume]

I bought a CD-14 about 15 years ago that had alligator crazing all over the gel coat. My solution was to sand it down pretty hard. To the point where the gel coat became translucent in many places. This greatly reduced the thickness of the gel coat and faired the cracks into the surrounding area. I then epoxy coated the entire hull and sanded again. The next coat was epoxy mixed with West systems 407 low density filler to fair the hull. I then primed and painted the hull. It came out really nice and has held up extremely well for the past 15 years. Well not the paint but at least the cracks have never shown again. The dinghy docks are harsh.

This was a pretty big job, even on a small boat but it did work well. I was just looking at a J boat at the yard that had been professionally painted and was very shiny but if you looked at it carefully the crazing was still there. You are not going to go around and treat each crack on an entire hull but if you want it to look good you have to deal with them all. No matter what you do I think the key is to reduce the thickness of the gel coat surrounding the cracks or crazing. Other wise you still have sharp edges that are going to telegraph through whatever else you do.

There is no easy way to do a nice job, Steve.

[Scott B.]

Thanx Steve. This is probably more effort than I wish to perform. I commend you on your effort.

[Steve Laume]

Thanx Steve. This is probably more effort than I wish to perform. I commend you on your effort.

If I couldn't have flipped the boat over or if it had been much bigger I probably would not have done the job either. It did work out well, Steve.