This worked perfectly on flat sections, but it broke down for us on corner cracks or through non-skid, where leveling difficult. Re-building cored repairing gelcoat crazing and cracking. They then direct you to carefully fill, level, and wipe around the crack. B(DAT LUM For Fine Boat Building and Repairs Sitka Spruce Mast& Spar Grade Philippine. Do not attempt to widen the crack-the Fix will seep into very thin cracks. Although slightly tedious, the needle step is very important. The instructions direct you to clean the cracks out with a fine needle and then to wash, rinse, and dry. It’s not cheap-$25 for a 0.43-ounce tube-but it’s hard to find a solution that’s much cheaper except in buying a large volume of gelcoat that would go to waste. We tried West Marine Gel Coat Scratch Patch, and although very careful, the results weren’t really an improvement.įinally, we tried a very minimalist approach using Magic Ezy Hairline Fix. A prior owner had “fixed” a few with Evercoat Gel Coat Scratch Patch gel coat repair, with ugly results.

Our test boat has had a few spider cracks since a few months after she came out of the mold. Cracks from larger issues-a winch, for example, that was inadequately mounted-will need to be fixed before cosmetic repairs begin. Stress by thermal expansion or when bulkheads and liners were installed can cause minor flexing. Spider cracks can indicate impact damage or serious structural problems that will need to be addressed to prevent spreading, but most often they result from relatively inflexible gelcoat that is too thick.

In this report, they offer the magic fix for hairline gelcoat cracks. For more than 35 years, Practical Sailor has been taking the guesswork out of boat and gear buying with bold, independent boat tests, and product-test reports for serious sailors and boaters.

Gelcoat crazing repair