Chips in Gel Coat & Discolored Gel Coat

[luckyinkentucky]

I washed my boat tonight, and decided to get down under the hull to give it a good scrubbing. While I was down there I noticed about a dozen places where the gel coat had chipped away, and all that was left was a black material underneath. The places are all fairly small with the largest being about the size of a pencil eraser. They are all on the back half of the hull, and the keel looks fairly good other than this.

Will a good gel coat patch kit fix this, and will the fix hold?

Also, I noticed that the lower part of the hull, under the water line, is a light tannish color as opposed to the rest of the hull which is white. There are some streaks of tan throughout the bottom, and it seems to be either in the paint or gel coat. While other areas are a solid tan. It's not that noticeable unless you are right up on it, but is it something to worry about? How can I get these area back to the original white?

If it makes any difference I think the previous owner ran the boat in some salt water areas while living in Texas. Also, the hull is shiny and feels smooth, but the discoloration is bothering me knowing it is there.

 

[gcboat]

Re: Chips in Gel Coat & Discolored Gel Coat

The tan color on your hull is probably tannin stains from vegetation decomposition. There are a number of cleaners for that, can't recommend one over the other. They are all caustic as hell so please read their directions carefully. The small knicks could be a number of things but let's just figure they are there from hitting 'stuff'. This product is as good as it gets for that type of repair:http://www.marinetex.com/
If these problem areas keep occuring then you just might have an osmotic blistering situation. Google it if you want to know more. All are completely repairable. Just another boat thing.