Fiberglass Repair

[Mid-MO]

I bought a 95 Nitro from an individual this spring. It has a small crack on the floor inside the boat back behind the bilge pump. The original owner had put some kind of patch over it that hadn't held (I pulled it off really easily in chunks). I crawled under the boat and looked for cracks/holes and didn't find any. The only damage on the outside of the boat is around the aerator and drain plug (this is kind of hard to explain). There is a right angle (an "L" shape) molded in the hull where the aerator inlet and drain plug come out. He has caulked along the bottom edge of that pretty heavily with the same stuff he used to seal around his new aerator inlet he installed (if that makes any sense).

I had it in the water for about an hour this week and got a little water in the boat. I'm pretty sure it is leaking really slowly through that crack. The crack is appears to be more horizontal - running parallel to the boats bottom. When I push on the crack, I get just a small amount of water to seep out. I'm trying to decide what I need to do. Should I patch it myself or take it to a boat fiberglass repair shop (have no idea what that might cost)?

It isn't leaking fast enough right now to hurt anything and could probably be sealed pretty easily. I'm more worried about the long term problems and if there might be some structural damage I'm not aware of. Everything feels solid though.

Any suggestions/thoughts??

THANKS!

[cart7t]

I would strip away all that caulk on the trailing edge of the pad (that's what that is BTW) and see exactly why he caulked it.  If it's cracked there it's quite possible the boat suffered an impact there, possibly sliding off the trailer onto a ramp (this is just a possibility).  The fact he's caulked it there indicates to me you've got an issue at that point of some kind and if it turns out you've got hull damage you'll need to repair that ASAP to avoid further water from getting into the hull and creating further problems.

[Mid-MO]

That is what concerns me too - that there could be structural damage.  But from everything I've pushed on and looked at - everything appears to be solid.  I did peel some of that caulk off last night (I'm going to take the rest off today) and for about 6 inches along that edge are chips.  Some of them are fairly big ones but none of them have gone through the hull and they aren't visible from inside the boat.  Once again everything looks solid despite the visual evidence.

He has apparently replaced the livewell pump (new pipe running out of the hull) and switched the drain plug and fitting at some point.  I had just assumed he had chipped that when changing those things out.

I actually bought this through a marina on consignment.  I called them and they were going to talk to the original owner on Monday and see what he says.

How easily can something like this be repaired?  Any idea what kind of cost I might be getting into?

[cart7t]

Well, since you don't know exactly what's wrong that's hard to tell. If the caulk is there sealing a crack at the transom/hull bottom edge and it's not too bad, it can be reglassed for not too terribly much money.  If there appears to be no cracks on the bottom side of the hull in that region I'd say at best you're lucky.  I'd wait till you hear from the previous owner though.