"

Hi Mike,

Wow, those are some pretty big stones!! It's important to make a good repair here as water ingress into the core of the deck will ultimately lead to delamination and further issues. If you haven't already, I would suggest you make sure the damage is covered until you have time to fix it.

If you are not already familiar with West System products, you're going to be by the time your finished. West Systems has a fantastic online brochure which I suggest you download and refer to during your planning of the repair. Here's the link: www.westsystem.com/ss/use-guides.

First you will need to take a grinding disc and grind back the damaged area, make sure you expose some of the foam/wood core and work the surrounding area into a dish shape.

Next, make sure you really dry out the core well, if necessary build a little tent over the area and position a hair dryer over the damage until you are sure it is really dry. Then clean up the area with Acetone to make it ready for glassing over.

Cut some glass cloth pieces sized to fill the dish you've created. You'll want to use 5-8 layers depending on the thickness of the deck and cloth. Here's the trick, place the smallest piece in the bottom and make each successive piece slightly larger in size to overlap until you reach the top. Follow the directions in your West System download in the "applying cloth/tape" section.

When this is completed and cured you will now want to fare out the repair so that it's nice and flush. Sand the repair with a block or orbital sander keeping it flat to the surface. Inevitably there will be pockets in the glass/epoxy where the surface isn't flush. These areas need to be filled with Epoxy and 407, again see the "fairing" section in your West System download.

When cured, sand down the surface until it is nice and flush, repeat the process again if necessary to fill any last pockets that may have been missed the first time around.

To match the finish to the surrounding deck, again the West System download outlines all of the finishes you may be trying to achieve. The toughest finish is the diamond print - - first you have to match the gelcoat color, then you will need to make a mold from another area of the deck using the 407 which you already have. Wax up an area with some release wax and pour some resin over it. When dry, it should pull off easily and you will have your mold of the diamond print. After painting the repair area you can now use this mold to replicate the print by pressing it into the deck over the wet gelcoat and using something heavy to keep it in place while it cures. Sounds easy enough, but I recommend a couple of test runs on some scrap material first until you get the hang of it.

While it seems like a lot of trouble, this is something I would definitely recommend that every boat owner learn to do. It's not the last time you will need to repair a damaged area on deck or the hull and it will save you a lot of money in the long run if you're capable of doing it yourself.

Good luck and best regards,

Captain Ian Fagg

"

Hi Mike,

Sorry to hear about the hole in your deck, but it is difficult to assess the damage without seeing it. The hail stone may have only damaged a small area of the gelcoat, in which you could probably repair the damage yourself with a gelcoat repair kit. Overton makes a good repair kit and here's the link to their website: http://search.overtons.com. If the damage is larger, or if it compromised the fiberglass deck, you are getting into repairs best done by a local professional.

Couple of questions for you. Does your boat have a headliner, or a skin on the ceiling? If so, can you remove it to see if the fiberglass is cracked? If the fiberglass is cracked, then you need to repair that BEFORE working on the topside. For repairing gelcoat Marine Tex is the best product and here is the link to that product: http://www.marinetex.com/

Sounds like the stone just pitted the fore deck without causing damage to the fiberglass and that the damage is small, so if that is the case, you simply need to dry the area very well and use a fiberglass repair kit. If I'm wrong about the amount of damage, then a professional is your best bet.

Hope this helps.

Best

Captain Craig Bliss