February 28, 2019
Returning from a business related trip, I took a few hours in the late afternoon to begin the gelcoat and fiberglass repair work required in a number of locations. I began with the starboard side of the Allied 24, where most of the issues were concentrated. Due to a combination of the age of the Allied and the original gelcoat being laid down in too thick a manner, there had appeared a number of cracks, chips, voids, and crazing across the side and aft decks, as well as the cockpit seating. In addition, with the owner electing to have new winches installed, I could now repair the molded-in coaming boxes (storage for winch handles and sundry items) without worry of preserving the holes for which the winches are secured through.
I began by solvent-washing the areas to be worked, and first targeted the top of molded-in coaming box and a few areas on the side deck immediately adjacent to the coaming box.
I then patterned the repair areas to accept a layer of 10oz fiberglass cloth. The repairs are not structural, but I did want some added strength and so chose to use this lightweight cloth.
I moved forward to three areas on the starboard side deck, just at the cabin's aft bulkhead.
I patterned these areas like I had done the coaming box.
Returning to the shop, I mixed a small amount of expose resin and wet the surfaces of these first few repair areas. I then cut out the templates, traced them onto the fiberglass cloth, and then removed those shapes from the fiberglass.
I then laid out the patterned fiberglass onto their respective repair areas, and ensured they were adequately saturated with epoxy resin.
To complete the repair, I mixed a cup of epoxy and thickened it to then fill the weave of the fiberglass cloth and other voids that the 10oz cloth itself would not fill.
I repeated the process for the three areas on the side deck just forward of the coaming box.
Next, I moved aft of the coaming box to a rather lengthy section of the starboard side deck where I had removed the damaged gelcoat. I patterned this area with plastic sheeting, and prepared the fiberglass cloth from that pattern.
As I had done in the previously described repairs, I wet the surface with straight epoxy resin and applied the fiberglass.
While waiting for the fiberglass cloth to tack up a bit, I worked on small patterns on the aft starboard cockpit seat. With this complete, I then applied a skim coat of the thickened epoxy on the longer repair area aft of the coaming box.
I then moved on to cutting out the starboard cockpit seat patches, applied neat epoxy to the surfaces, and then laid down the fiberglass cloth.
As per usual, I applied a skim coat of thickened epoxy to these repair areas.
The final area of surfacing work would be the forward portion of the starboard side deck. I had seven areas to attend to there, and got to work by solvent-washing the deck to remove any surface contaminates. I created patterns with plastic sheeting, as described earlier in the post, and used those to cut the 10oz fiberglass cloth. There was one area that required a more substantial fiberglass fabric - the transition of the side deck to the cabin sides, and here I used 1708 biaxial due to the depth of the area I ground out. I first wet the surfaces, and then applied a foundation of thickened epoxy (more so for the deeper repair area requiring the 1708 biaxial).
Next, I applied the fiberglass cloth to the repair areas and made sure that the weave was adequately wet with resin. I cleaned up the boat and the shop while waiting for the repairs to begin to set up and get tacky. Applying the skim coat of thickened epoxy to the repairs immediately following placing the fiberglass cloth would have resulted in dragging the cloth across the surface. I eventually was able to apply the skim coat of thickened epoxy - I used the combination of 406 colloidal silica and 407 low-density to thicken the epoxy resin - which completed the day's work.
Total Time Today: 3 hrs
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