Boating Mishap!!!

[OUI]

Good thing it's on the bottom. It's an easy fix. A small amount of resin and some type of filler (maybe micro balloon) will fix it. No need to GelCoat, that's just to help release the boat from the mold, and from a factory perspective, it's a just lazy man's paint job. Get some sandpaper, some acetone, resin and filler -- and you're good to go. Sand the area for good adhesions, clean with acetone, add the filler to the resin, and spread it on using a spatula. Let it dry and sand to a finish. A little paint and you’re ready to go. My guess about the time to drink 2 beers.

[saltare inverts]

OUI I may be wrong but gel coat is a type of paint that is much more resistant to dings and scratches than normal paint. It is also formulated to adhere well to fiberglass. It is sprayed on and mixed with hardener at the gun to gel together. Much different then just putting paint over the fiberglass.

[Mani]

Fiberglass is also full of pores, and therefore not water proof. Gelcoat keeps your boat above the waterline.

[TayTay]

I think I have come to the final decision to go through insurance. Granted it is $500 but for that I will get a professional, documented job (good for resale), and also will get my alignment checked and make sure all of that is in order. I eventually want to upgrade to a newer bigger boat so I would rather pay now, have it done right, and have the paperwork for it all.

[docdrs]

Whooooaaa Wait , I see 3 maybe 4 spots and they want 1300!!!!. That is rediculous. Get another quote. did you get the crap out of your strut? does the prop spin freely or does it appear like the shaft is bent? is the prop bent or dinged? Take it out and see if there is vibration....... I agree , it looks pretty much cosmetic and the repair shouldn't be much more than 500. the strut is pretty strong. And you shut it down after you realized what happened. What will it do to your rates? Its apr and they know you want it now.......just .02

[scotthons]

If the insurance sends a field adjuster to inspect the boat then he will probably know that the other damage is not related. If the insurance is only asking for a quote then you may see if the fiberglass guy will include the other damage and give his opinion that it is related. That is a little shady, but up to you. I doubt it will have much of a bearing on your premium, although it will probably be an at fault accident. I wonder if there is anyway you can convince the claims guy that you hit a moving object and maybe it would be covered under your comprehensive deductible and therefore not being an at fault claim.

[2002 LAUNCH SS OWNER]

Sooo...... I don't know if anybody read my post about going out on Saturday and having a little mishap, well here's the illustrated story.

A friend was trying to get up on the wakeboard, well she is not very good and couldn't stay up. Needless to say her last fall the rope whip lashed her in the knee. I turned around and went to pick her up. When I got there, the angle I took put me kind of close to the shore so I told, once you are on the back of the boat, I'm gonna idle away from the shore a little bit. Well, I was back up and I heard someone say uh stop, then an immediate thud thud thud. I thought somehow the wakeboard went under the boat so I threw it in drive to try get away from it, hearing more thud thud thud I stopped and killed the engine. When I turned around they said I had run over the rope...and handle come to find out.

Well the water is 48 degrees right now. Luckily this time if year I wakeboard in my 7.5mm diving wetsuit with a hood for lack of anything else. I donned my wetsuit and wet diving with a rope around my waist in case I there was an issue, they could pull me out. It was that cold you cant hold your breath for very long so it probably took me 15 trips under the boat to finally get the thing untangle. By then I literally couldn't feel my feet and my hands were getting pretty stiff.

Soooo, we checked the boat when we pulled out and there was a little rubber from the handle wedged in the prop shaft and the strut. Today I noticed the real damage. Apparently those handles are made of aluminum or something and it really dinged the bottom of my boat up. It looks like what happened is the prop hit the middle of the handle, as you can tell by the gouge, then spun it around hitting the bottom of the boat, hence the thud thud thud I heard. Here are some pictures....

The Handle Set Up



The Rope



The gouge in the Handle



The part that I think F-ed my boat up

Thank God rope was not in someones hands or wrapped around thier leg when prop decided to wrap up your rope for you,it is a bummer your hull
got some damage but be happy no one was hurt.

A few years ago my friends son got dragged out of the boat by runaway tube,
rope wrapped around his leg and tube came off of back of boat like a parachute and he had third degree rope burn on the back of his knee,he was
7 or 8 years old.

Two weeks ago I nearly sunk my boat by not having main circuit breaker button above ignition key engaged so my boat was moored at my dock
without a automatic bilge pump!!!

I had replaced bent strut and prop shaft last summer while on holidays and
could not figure out why I seemed to be taking on more water in bilge then normal** Well I found my leak there was a 2 inch crack on seam of exhaust
Muffler.

I have beefed up fiberglass around 45 degree elbow and front cap seam of both mufflers,but then I cracked rear 3 inch outlet on one muffler by overtightening hose clamps.

Upon inspection of cracked outlet I realized outlet pipe was not glassed uniformly 2/3 the circle was 1/4 inch thick and remaining 1/3 was less then
1/8 of a inch. ( NO WONDER IT CRACKED)

So I am glad I found my leak, but I am not happy with the Qaulity of Ultra
Marine Mufflers used by Supra and have decided to replace them with exact
replica mufflers built my Centek products from Thomasville Georgia, they
used to be called Veratone Mufflers have been around for years and I think make a better product then Ultra Marine Mufflers.

My local Supra dealer up hear assures me that these mufflers have been no problem for years, but I have had a crack in seam for no good reason
and another failure because of 3 inch outlet not being uniformly glassed

Please reply to this thread if you have had any problems with these factory mufflers, If you have had problems and want to upgrade to Centek Marine Mufflers, they have a cad drawing of my stock mufflers and are currently building me replacements. I should have them in 4 weeks time and will let you know how everything worked out.

Well enough whinning 4 now lets go boating, (have fun& be safe)
Dave

[OUI]

Saltare Inverts, Gel Coat is a primary coat in the mold. It's function is as a release agent when pulling the cured haul/deck from the mold. Manufactures decided at some point to had color so they wouldn't have to paint.

Mani, fiberglass cloth has pores, resin does not. Gel Coat has nothing to do with keeping water out. All you need to do is fill the holes with a mixture of resin and a filler like Micro Balloons and you're good to go. If you want to paint after the repair use any type of enamel and you're good to go.

It is a simple repair that can be done in 2 hours, If you live anywhere near Minneapolis, I'd be happy to help.

[TayTay]

Here are the results of the mishap...

http://supraboats.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=6967