Yacht Refit - Turning Old into (almost) New

The underwater hull should be inspected in great detail. The question whether an osmosis treatment or prevention needs to be considered for a GRP hull is of great importance and requires an informed answer. When to many old anti-fouling layers have been applied in the past, the entire old coating should be removed. Ideally, the old paint just needs to be sanded or even cleaned. It depends on the material used before.

Unfortunately, an ugly scar, a small chipping or a small crack in the gel coat can occur faster than you think and is very annoying. More so, because it is not only the perfect appearance of the yacht that is affected, but maybe also the dark laminate lying underneath the gel coat. Moisture can penetrate into the laminate through small cracks in the outside surface and eventually damage its strength. Smaller gel coat damages can be repaired with little effort by yourself.

The repair of laminate damage turns out to be more complicated andtime consuming. The repair area is set off and framed with adhesive tape. The edges of the damaged area need to be scarfed into a V-shape. Trim the glass fibre mats to the right size, start with the smallest piece and gradually increase, producing as uniform overlaps as possible. Completely saturate glassfibre mats with polyester resin. The laminate must appear uniformly transparent in the end. White spots are evidence of trapped air, which must be vented immediately, as this would facilitate later osmosis. The new laminate should slightly surpass the original shape of the damaged area to have sufficient material for grinding it down to an even surface in the end. Finally seal the repaired conclusively.