What is the best way to repair damage to the gel coat on the hull?
A For minor cracks in the gel coat where the hull structure behind is not seriously damaged The area inside the hull surrounding the damage should be abraded with coarse abrasive paper. Depending on the position and seriousness of the damage, use a patch of reinforcement wetted out with the minimum of epoxy resin to patch the hull inside. Overlap the damage by 20 mm in all directions. When cured, and if it is large enough, the crack in the gel coat should be filled with resin pigmented to the correct colour. When this has cured mask off the surrounding area and carefully rub down the new gel coat with 600, 800, 1000 and 1200 abrasive papers. Finally buff it with metal polish to restore the original finish. For more serious damage where complete failure of the backing reinforcement has occurred In these cases the material along the crack should be ground or filed out to allow the hull to return to its original shape at the earliest opportunity. This ensures the repair will not be so not
