Tore the skin right off my bottom!

[Billybob]

As some of you may recall, I have an old 73 Seacraft.
I was fishing Friday night, there was a pretty good 2 - 3 chop, it was starting to get dark,and I was running pretty good (35 mph)to get to the bait before dark.
I was in deep water, and I heard a thud under the boat not a particularly huge one, but enough to concern me.I stopped, looked back and saw something floating in the wash but didn't go back to check it out - probably should have.Started back slowly, no vibration, figured I clipped a log.
The next day I pulled the boat, and can't believe what I saw.
The whole skin (gelcoat and top layer of glass)was torn off the boat on the port middle running surface from about 3' aft of the bow all the way to the transom! But the mat/roving under it was intact. Forward of this spot, you could see that outer skin was delaminated from the roving.
My guess is that I had a delamination there that I never noticed and when it cracked the force of the water just peeled it back clean right against the edgeds of the "steps".
I'm wondering what do you think could have caused this?
How best to fix it?
Do I have an insurance claim?
I'll try to get some pics of the damage,but wanted to get some ideas from you guys asap.
This boat is so old, I don't know if this is an area that was previously repaired, if it was delaminated at layup, or if it ocurred over time, or worse case if it has some underlying structural issue like stringers that caused it.
What will best bond to the old surface epoxy or poly?
What's the best cloth to use?
My season's done just when things were heating up, but I'm lucky it still floats.

[FELLOW-SHIP]

I would go with epoxy and some light grade fiberglass. You can get a little booklet from west marine on the how too’s then a little gel coat and WHAM you are Fishing again.
FellowShip [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[ocuyler]

I agree with Fellow Ship. Make a quick repair and get back out there...

[Rufridr069]

West Systems Epoxy

Go to the user guide. Pretty simple. You also might want to check for other blisters before you wrap it up for winter.

[Bigshrimpin]

I've never heard of this happening to any boat. Sounds like an old repair gone bad. Someone must have really puddied the bottom.

[strick]

Agree with shrimpin.. I just dont see the original factory layup coming apart like that. Get her out of the water and fix it. As far as the insuranse claim goes you have nothing to loose because you could have hit something that started the delamination process [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] You heard a THUD right?

Strick

[Scott]

Bill

Any progress on the repair or what may have caused it ?? Do you have any pictures ??

[Ed]

Hmmm...that sounds odd BillyBob. Unless you hit something the only thing I can thing of is that there was a stress crack below the waterline and when the water got in it underway it peeled back the laminate.

If I were you, I would get that baby in a heated garage or barn, turn up the heat and turn on a dehumidifier and let that her dry out for 3 weeks or so. Then I would do a complete inspection of the hull. after that start grinding back (12:1 ratio)the damaged laminate, clean with acetone and then layup with glass. This is a good situation to vaccum bag in my opinion.

[Billybob]

Thanks for the replies.I don't think I'll be getting to it this year, unless I can find a heated space.
I'll try to get some pictures.It does look like a good application for vacuum bagging, but I have no experience with it and a long strip like that would be a tough one.
It looks like there was some delamination there for god knows how long and I just never noticed it because the bottom was intact, and then I hit something, it cracked, and the water pressure did the rest.
I'll keep you posted.
Bill

[Billybob]

Thought I'd bump this up and give you guys an update.I didn't want to touch the boat until the insurance adjuster saw it.
I took it to a very reputable yard for an estimate.These guys work on really big boats and weren't too interested in doing my little 23', but the manager is a friend of a friend.
Their opinion was that there was a delamination and when I hit something, the strip just peeled back.The manager said he has seen similar problems on other boats, and they refer to these as "Friday boats" he even said some builders won't layup boats on Friday's.But you gotta wonder how it lasted 30 years if it was a layup f-up - so I don't know.
So, he gave me an estimate for $3000 and the adjuster came and looked at it last week.I also found a friend with some warehouse space that he said I could use gratis - So I could be getting to it soon.
The yard recommended I use polyester and "fabmat" which sounds like some kind of stitched chopped strand.
Once I get it in the barn and off the trailer, I'll take some pics as I go.
Any opinions on what to order for the cloth? I'll probably order it online, but I'm not too sure of the weights and codes for the product I want to use.
Have a good holiday guys,
Bill