Aquarius Sail Owners

I am interested in your opinions on repairing this split. It goes through the outer layer. When pressed water bubbles out. There is one
small soft spot under the gel coat cracking. The hull feels solid under the cracks otherwise. The attached pic is of the port hull just aft of the bridle.

Is that the top or bottom of the hull? I would start by doing some sanding/grinding to see what's going on. If water is bubbling out the core has probably soaked up water. I have fixed soft spots by injecting thickened epoxy through a series of holes drilled through the outer layer of glass. Others have ground away the entire outer layer and replaced the foam core and then glassed over it. I just finished a boat and fixed a soft spot about the size of a quarter using the injection method. If you look at my post there is a picture of the repair.

As for the spilt I would guess that's where the hull is joined together? My guess wold be to bevel each edge and then lay some down.

Mac, thanks for the reply. That shot is the top seam.

That split looks fairly long, like a foot or so. I would flip the boat over or better yet remove the hull, then filip it over. Let gravity do its thing for a few days to get the water out. the sun will help as well, and you could put a small fan on it to keep air circulating. drill some holes through the outer layer of glass a couple of inches in from the split. You want to get out as much water as possible, ideally the area getting patched will be bone dry. Prep is very important if the patch is going to last.

GH,

Looks like something might have been dropped on the deck of the hull causing the split. I would take Whalerman's suggestion to heart and make sure you get it really dry before trying to do any work on it, if it is wet your repair probably won't last. The hull is built in halves and there is an overlap on one of the hull halves, it appears that the glue joint between this overlap has probably failed.

I would suggest taking a very thin putty knife and seeing if you can work it into the seam, this will tell you which side the overlap is on and help to open it up a get some air-flow for drying. Once it is dry you could work some epoxy putty joint to re-glue it and then grind down the gelcoat on the outside and put some patches of fiberglass over the seam and damaged area. Looking at the photographs I think it is quite repairable, but don't let it go as this is a highly loaded part of the hull.

Thanks for the replies. Whalerman, that split is 7 inches long. Upside down for the hull could be in the cards. I have removed the front cross bar. Bit of a pain that! The area around the mast step is riddled with holes. The step is more JB Weld than cast aluminum.
Does the step on a 15 just sit on top of the cross bar as indicated in the parts diagram or is the post that bolts through stock?
The dia. on the ball is 1-1/2" which seems small. Any advice on welding up the holes in the tubing?
Stay tuned, more to come. Thanks GH It got better.

GH,

That post & ball are not stock. The casting should have a cast post on it (looks like it was cut off) and the ball sitting on top. The ball should be 2" in diameter. If your going to repair the beam I would consider welding an oval shaped patch over the entire area where all the holes are. The tube liner could just be rotated so when you drill into it you hit fresh material.

Matt, thanks for the reply. I was thinking of a full patch. How does that affect mast height for standing rigging? One hole in a chain plate?

Hard to say... I was thinking of a patch that was around 0.90-0.125" thick so I doubt you would really notice it.