PDRacer Sailboat

Repairing Big Holes
By David "Shorty" Routh

Eventually you are going to run into a log or rock, and knock a good sized hole in your boat. Holes are fairly easy to repair, especially if you don't might the cosmetics so much and have some epoxy and a little fiberglass laying around.

This is one method for repairing a hole.

First sand down the damaged area so it makes a concave depression. Put duct tape on the other side of the hole, so the filler epoxy won't drip out.

Prepare a filler to mix with epoxy, such as sawdust. You can use it straight, or improve it by running it thru a blender and screen it. Wheat flour and various other powders make good fillers and/or can be used in combination with sawdust. Ofcourse there are many excellent fillers you can purchase which are designed specifically to thicken epoxy.

Pour a little bit of straight epoxy into the hole so it will soak into the little cracks and crevaces, use a paintbrush and popsicle sticks to help get the epoxy into the voids.

Mix your filler with epoxy to make a substance similar to peanut butter. Spread that mix on the hole to fill it. Let the epoxy cure.

Within 24 hours of cure, sand down the repair area, and apply a layer or two of fiberglass cloth that has been soaked in epoxy. Let it cure.

My favorite fiberglass is 6oz "tape" in the 4" width. It is basically just fiberglass cloth, no adhesive, and comes on a roll which is only 4" wide.

The reason that you want to apply the cloth within 24 hours of applying the filler is because in that time frame you can still get a chemical bonding between layers. If you wait longer than 24 hours, the bonding of additional layers won't be as strong, but they will still be good enough for what we do.

Hole In Airbox
So, what happens if you bust a hole in your airbox and can't reach it to sand it down? One solution is to remove the deck, but then after the repair you would have to re-finish the deck. The following a repair technique that is quick and simple to do.

Here is a look at the outside of the hole after I sanded it down a bit.

On the inside of the airbox, I reached in and pulled off as many splinters as I could, the hole was just barely within my reach.

The problem with a hole like this is if you pour epoxy onto the repair from the outside, it will just drip in the airbox. If you try to just duct tape the hole from the inside, you could end up with dripping strands of epoxy which when cured, will make sharp points and harm the objects you carry inside your airbox.

One solution is to make a backup board and cover the entire area.

Apply lots of glue. Fish the line thru the hole first, then you can pull the backup board into place.

Then use a screw driver twisted in the line to make it tight and apply pressure. This holds backup board to the hull in compression to help the glue cure. Its called a Spanish Windlass, and is a very handy technique.

On a seperate note, if you ever are someplace and need to winch something into place but don't have a winch, you can make a Spanish Windlass to do the job for you.

Presto you have plugged the back side of the hole and left it with a smooth surface. Now you can clip the line off, and continue with the repair like described above.

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