After we got back from Florida, I started working on the last few steps before we can paint barrier coat and bottom paint.

First, I filled the hole in the boat below the waterline. Y’all remember this guy?

I used the dremel to open up the hole and prep it for epoxy. I also cleared a larger area of gelcoat, I’ll apply fiberglass over the full area for extra strength and structure so the hole doesn’t re-open. I wiped the holes (yup, now there are two) down with acetone to clean up any fiberglass dust.

After that I mixed up a cup of West System epoxy with some colloidal silica filler (West System 406) to a peanut-butter-like consistency.

I stuffed as much of that into the hole as I could, then let the epoxy set. Since we can’t stop fighting this rain, I had to tent it with plastic wrap to help keep it dry.

After 24 hours, I briefly went over it with the dremel to smooth the surface, then acetone cleaned it. I mixed up a cup of epoxy (no fillers) and used that to glue on a couple strips of fiberglass mat. These add structure to the repair area. The first photo is right after I laid on the fiberglass, the next shot is after the fiberglass was saturated with epoxy.

Then I added fairing filler (West System 407) to the epoxy and used that the cover the area. The previous steps were for structure, this step is for cosmetics.

After it hardened, Kyle sanded it smooth to match the contours of the boat. No need to gelcoat since this is below the waterline (edit: but if you do need to gelcoat, check out my post on minor gelcoat repairs!).

I’ll paint it with barrier coat (an epoxy-based paint) and bottom paint. Now that the bottom is prepped, we’re just waiting for the weather forecast to cooperate! We need 3 days with steady temps above 50°F and no rain.

Edit: here’s the area post-painting – you can’t even tell it was ever there!

Ta-da! Like it never happened!