I bought a sailboat without really knowing much about how to take care of them. I think pic related happened while hauling it home, not 100% sure. I assume this should be patched up or something, anyone know what I should do and what materials I'll need eg fiberglass patch, epoxy, sealant etc?
other pics
Sailboats aren't supposed to have a ring right there. Use the cleats on the bow. Trailers are supposed to be built around the boat, not the boat built around the trailer.
Fart on it.
could you propel yourself on a sail boat if you farted enough?
Yes, because of Newton's 3rd law.
The anon who suggested a stainless backing plate is on the right path, looking at this pic I can see a big chunk missing that reveals a very thick layer of unreinforced gel coat.
That's not a huge deal except that in that kind of tight angled crevice-like location in a female mold theres a tendency for the fiberglass composite to become resin rich, and too much resin-to-glass makes for weak spots that crack and disintegrate with normal stresses from hull flexing and especially under point loads from hardware like an eye bolt used to drag the boat with.
Keep in mind that besides being pulled on at an angle during loading and beaching and whatnot during the boats existence, that fitting has probably been smacked into docks and other solid objects, possibly other boats and who knows what else, at all kinds of speeds and angles so a thorough inspection of the area is in order if you choose to stick with that kind of fitting.
Personally I'd probably just plug the hole with epoxy putty and install a U bolt to divide the point loads, with a large backing plate to spread those loads out over a larger area. Something like a heavy wall tube bedded into epoxy putty would be a good solution that would reinforce the stem (the leading edge of a boats bow) and spread the loads all along it.
As for epoxies, WEST System is great but very expensive and more specialized than you need for general repairs (it's actually designed for cold molding plywood from veneers hence name Wood Epoxy Saturation Technique).
You can add stuff to thicken it but it's really thin and not forgiving for a beginner, and cheaper stuff like System 3 and MAS are better suited for general repairs to all fiberglass hulls. That said WEST System literature is a treasure trove of techniques and solutions so its well worth investigating.
Just in case the U-bolt and tube thing wasn't clear, here's a sketch.
Also tell us the make, model and year of the boat and we can probably tell you if it's a POS or worth doing
serious repairs based on who made it and how.
You'll need to fabricate a backing out of GRP board, marine plywood or stainless. Stainless probably best since you could V it. The hardware, if not stainless will need replaced (See Galvanic corrosion) once the backing is made to reinforce the area. Use a good adhesive sealant (3m 5200) This will ensure it will not fail again.
The alternative would be to reinforce the inside with epoxy resin and glass mat and redrilling the hole for the anchor
its not the anchor, just a hitch point to the trailer
The eyelet anchors the boat on the trailer, therefore it is an anchor.
Anchor point, anchor bolt, whatever.
Fill it with bubble gum, I really don't give a frick
based with trips to prove it
do this op, that's a mighty fine frickup
>I bought a sailboat
Congratulations! This is he happiest day you'll have as a boat owner. Until the day you sell it.
It's a long-standing joke -- that's haha only serious
>anyone know what I should do
How much do you care about this boat?
If "ehh," fill it with epoxy.
If "a lot," you're going to have to learn about fibreglass repair. It's ..involved. Especially on seams like that.
What type of sailboat, give us a full pic of the boat plus mark out where you fricked it.
At a glance they are not load bearing points since there was no backplate to support them
How to fix, depends on the hull construction
west marine has a line of materials for boat building and repair called West System. i suggest you educate yourself on those products first.
Yeah, too hard to say without knowing more about the structure, but he general process for anything like this is
>grind away everything damaged, either until you get to solid, sound material if it's just surface damage or until you have a big hole with solid material around it
>feather the edges to a 1to12 bevel
>construct patch from layers of increasing size until youve matched the thickness of original material and it fits nicely into the prepped area, can do this separately and apply after or build it up on the hole directly
>if the hole is any bigger than your palm you probably need a backing to support it in place while it cures, this can get really tricky if the back is inaccessible
>if it broke because it wasn't strong enough for what it's intended build it stronger this time
If it's a cheap shitty boat and not a structural problem you might be able to get away with just a quick and dirty surface repair and then finding another way to hook it on to the trailer, that looks like it might be a huge pain to do right, but it's hard to say without really seeing it
Black person. Can you pull the camera back and take a wide shot so we know what the frick your even taking a picture of.
I wish I had enough money to do anything nice. The other day a guy sold me a beer (grapefruit hef) by explaining it’s the perfect beer for when you bring out the boat for the first of the year. I don’t have a boat, but still bought it to get a taste.
Contrary to what many people think sailboats are not extravagantly expensive. Unless you are a complete poorgay you should be able to find a half decent boat for a few grand.
The floating money pit meme only applies if you want to really do it up, as long as the hull, rigging and sails are ok you'll be fine. Also frick internal diesels, get one that you can slap an outboard on
>sailboats are not extravagantly expensive
bought mine for $2600
which, it turns out, is a bit less slippage and storage fees for one year
let's not talk about insurance and maintenance
at least I don't have to buy much fuel for the outboard
although there was that one time I had to replace my Genoa (big sail for going downwind, for the peanut gallery) after it was destroyed in a hurricane
sure am glad insurance DIDN'T cover those $1800 because the sail was too old at the time I bought the insurance
who knew that was a thing, right?
"Sorry, Mister. We're not going to replace your driveway after that lunatic drove a tank over your front yard. See, it was built in 1992. And it's 2023 now. Over thirty years old."
Driveways don't stretch and damage from UV radiation or wind forces over time due to age.
Also, having your genoa out during a hurricane isn't a freak accident, you should be monitoring the weather and know when to reef your sails in high wind.
>Also, having your genoa out during a hurricane isn't a freak accident, you should be monitoring the weather and know when to reef your sails in high wind.
Sails get damaged and destroyed by high winds when fully reefed and/or stored on boats that are docked, dummy.
>floating money pit meme
gonna bet you've never owned more than an inflatable dingy
whereas for me: it was a surprising relief for me when the boat yard had a fire
pretty severe damage
total loss
fiberglass does weird things in fire
and that genoa I'd bought the year prior was destroyed
insurance cut me a check for $2200 dollars
$180 for the trailer -- I shit you not
$220 for the boat -- I shit you not 1973 boat
$1800 for the genoa -- they tried to get out of it, but seeing as their whole argument from the previous denial was based on it being too old and that repair replacement was my responsibility, it was now covered
I moved inland
I have a kayak for the lake now
But thinking about a Sunfish
Because I apparently love expensive pain
I've owned a few shitboxes in my time and while it's not the cheapest hobby ever it is not the sole preview of the ultra rich as many think.
There are deals out there if you look hard enough and once you've replaced the sails and rigging you are set for years.
Mooring fees are a different story I agree and the boatyards generally try to gouge you but again there are always options out there.
How would you even spend significant money on a sunfish? It's a fibreglass plank with no standing rigging and 2 control lines. Used ones in decent condition are under a grand and need almost no maintenance unless you crash into something or care about racing performance.
Obviously there's cheaper/diy alternatives but you forgot rudder and daggerboard...even an old school wooden sunfish rudder blade by itself is between $200-300 and an upgrade to an FRP blade and new cheeks will eat up 60% of that thousand bucks-
https://www.velasailingsupply.com/laser-performance-sunfish-fully-rigged-rudder/
Want a nice modern fiberglass daggerboard to go with it? You've already blown past that 1K figure.
https://www.velasailingsupply.com/laser-performance-sunfish-racing-daggerboard/
And that's for an ancient one design class, get a great deal on something newer and sexier and you'll pay through the nose for parts to restore and keep it alive, especially if you want to race it.
If you're buying a sunfish for 800$ it comes with a rudder and daggerboard in decent shape or you're getting ripped off and they should last years at minimum if you do nothing but hose them off after sailing.
They're also really not hard to diy. You lose a percent or two of performance from not having the perfect foil shape and worse finish but who cares.
Yes, if you want to be competitive in decent level racing that gets expensive, but that's not sailing, that's racing. You're not getting a cheap used sunfish to race against J22s
If you can't afford to own a sunfish you don't have time to be complaining about it on the internet, go talk to the unemployment office or collect empty cans on the side of the road.
>If you can't afford to own a sunfish
Nta, but storage is usually a bigger factor than expense. Poorgays can afford a car payment, new electronics, fast food. So its not like they couldnt afford a sunfish. But someone making 1000$ a week wont be able yo afford to own a sunfish if they live in an aparpment in the middle of a city.
I dunno, I'm sure it's possible to be in a situation where owning a sunfish isn't a good idea, like if you would have to drive for hours to get to a body of water, but it's not like you're paying for a slip at a marina for it. They're small and light, you can easily tow them with a normal car or even a bicycle if you have to and they're fast to set up so there's no problem storing it a few blocks away from the launch wherever you can find a cheap facility or a guy that will let you park it in his field for 50$
I've never looked at the sailing situation in the middle of a city but I assume if there's a boat launch available there's also places to store boats, a sunfish is a bit harder to store than a surfboard but not that much, if someone wants to make it work they can, they just have to want to, if they'd rather put the money towards payments on a new phone every 3 years that's also a choice they can make.
>but it's not like you're paying for a slip at a marina for it. They're small and light
>there's no problem storing it a few blocks away from the launch wherever you can find a cheap facility or a guy that will let you park it in his field for 50$
Bros a straight idiot. Rentgays dont have these luxuries.
>Rentgays dont have these luxuries
Rentgays don't deserve any luxuries. Choose not to be poor.
True, but beside the point. c**t.
What do you mean? Lots of rentgays have disposable income even if they're making poor financial decisions with it.
I've never had to pay to store a boat personally but looking up prices for what I would have had to pay back when I lived in Burnaby, it would have been $328 a year to store a dinghy on a rack at the Jericho Sailing Center, for both membership and storage fees. 800$ buy in and ~300$ a year is pretty cheap for a hobby, how many people here spend more than that on videogames? And that's leaf prices in one of the most expensive cities in the country.
Maybe paycheck to paycheck rentgays that are one bad month away from homelessness can't afford to own things, but if you can make car and phone payments you can afford to own a small sailboat if you want to. If you're on a limited budget maybe that means you have to make some decisions about whether you want a sunfish more than you want a ps5, but if you do then either you can afford it or you have bigger things to worry about and should be trying to stabilize your life first.
Bro how the frick am i supposed to afford 300$ a year AND my daily fast food and subsriptions. And then i would have to leave the house to actually use the boat? Ew, no thanks.
You could learn how to laminate and go through all that pain. However, since it's not a high performance application, just scrape/grind out the worst bits and fill the hole with a mixture of epoxy resin and chopped carbon or glass strands. Redrill and put the biggest washer you can on the back.
t. Aerospace composites engineer
Anon, just flex seal it and call it good.
Get a stainless bow protector with either welded on eyelet or drill and bolt one on.
>picrel
Just get the one that fits or you can bend into shape until it does.
>t. Sailgay
I was going to suggest another forum but I see you're on there already. 🙂
Not him but I've got some fiberglass work to do on a small sailboat and might end up needing to ask questions, what's a decent forum for that?
Search boatbuilding forums. It's a large community.
Most cracks in the hull are going to need fibreglass patching to keep the boat in any sort of quality state.