Hull Repairs
I had never taken the boat hull off the trailer, consequently I had no idea of the condition of the portion of the hull hidden by the trailer support boards. As it turned out, there was still a section of the old Fiberglass skin about 4 foot wide by 8 foot long surrounding the daggerboard slot.
Once I supported the hull and removed the trailer, I was able to remove this last section of fiberglass by simply pulling it down and off. Unfortunately, there were a couple of places where the water had penetrated the plywood hull and rotted the outer layer. I scraped and sanded and ground these areas with my angle grinder and removed all the loose crap. Then I sealed it with a layer of fiberglass resin. After the gel hardened, I sanded it and applied a layer of fiberglass mat and resin. I was going to continue this process to build up this area but decided to fill it with bondo. So, I put three or four layers of bondo in the low places and tried to even it out.
After building it up, I applied one layer of fiberglass cloth and resin to the entire bottom of the hull. Now I have every exterior portion of the boat covered with at least one layer of fiberglass. I want to cover the hull bottom from the ama supports with at least four layers of fiberglass. . . maybe six.
I ordered some resin and resin colorizer from Jamestown Distributors. I want to apply a layer of colored resin to the entire boat. This might be the finish instead of gel coat. I figure that I can always do the gel coat later by just sanding the colored fiberglass. And by being colored, it will make the boat look more finished and less of a project in the front yard. Maybe that will stave off any possible complaints by the city or the neighbors. Here are a couple of current pictures.