Gelcoat and laminate repair
From a chip beside the rubbing strake to a hole through the hull. The extent of a repair follows from the cause of the damage, so we start by identifying it rather than by filling the void.
Gelcoat damage looks much the same and calls for entirely different repairs. A chip beside the rubbing strake is an hour's work; a crack radiating around a fitting means the structure beneath is moving, and simply filling the void will bring it back within a season. That is why we start a repair by identifying the cause rather than the colour.
What we repair
- Chips and scratchesfilling and polishing
- Hairline cracksopening up and filling
- Laminate punctureslayered repair
- Delaminationafter assessing the extent
How the repair proceeds
The damaged area is opened up to sound material, because gelcoat laid over a cracked edge will let go under the first load. The void is filled in layers, allowing for shrinkage, and once cured it is sanded and polished level with its surroundings. With punctures the repair starts from the laminate side — gelcoat carries no load and will not replace a structural layer.
Colour matching
The hardest part is not the repair itself but matching the shade to a surface that has faded over a dozen or more seasons. White from a catalogue will not match the white of the topsides, so the colour is matched on samples in daylight and the repaired patch is polished together with the surrounding field so the boundary does not stand out. The guide on matching gelcoat colour has the details.
When it is not an ordinary repair
Blisters below the waterline filled with a sticky, sour-smelling fluid are osmosis, not mechanical damage — repairing them calls for drying the laminate and a separate schedule. Cracks radiating from a fitting mean the structure is moving: there the substrate is reinforced first and the surface restored afterwards.
What to prepare before a quote
- a photograph of the whole topside or deck and a close-up of each defect with a ruler,
- whether the damage grows between seasons,
- what happened — an impact, contact with a pontoon, a crack with no obvious cause,
- a photograph of a sheltered spot, for example under the toe rail, as a colour reference.
Common questions
Can you tell that gelcoat has been repaired?
With the colour well matched and the neighbouring field polished, a repair is invisible from a few metres away. Close up and under raking light the difference in shade can sometimes be caught, especially on dark colours, which fade the most.
Do hairline cracks have to be repaired?
If they are shallow and not spreading, they can wait for the next larger job on that surface. They are worth repairing when they reach the laminate or sit below the waterline — there they let water further in.
How long does a single repair take?
The work itself is usually one to four hours, but the layers have to cure in between, so the vessel stays in the workshop longer. With several defects they are handled in parallel and the total time grows more slowly than their number.
Do you repair osmosis?
We diagnose it and carry out the surface work, but a full repair calls for drying the laminate over several weeks or months and is planned as a separate seasonal job. The guide on hull osmosis covers the basics.