Cracks on my boat's deck!!

[mochosla]

Hi guys,

I have a 2000 Seaswirl Striper that is showing signs of it's age. There are some hairline cracks in the gelcoat but my bigger concern are small cracks on the deck right in between the molded floor pattern. I fixed a couple of them with gelcoat but they don't look right. My question is, do I need to worry much about these cracks? Are they going to turn into soft spots on my deck? If I need to address them, can I use flex mold and repair one at a time? They are about 2" long and there are about 20 of them throughout the deck. Or should I sand the whole floor and re-do the entire deck?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Cadwelder]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

Pesonally I would reseal the deck.....before it starts to get soft spots. Normally on here you have major restores, but you have caught yours properly. Reglassing the deck isn't a big deal, since you don't have to tear anything apart, now you'll be good for another 11 years or more.

 

[jonesg]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

Boats tend to rot from the bottom up, not top down.
What is underneath the glass liner, sometimes it sits on a ply base, mine sits on foam.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

Most of the time small cracks like you described don't mean much and are only a cosmetic issue, but without seeing them its difficult to tell.

If the gel coat is a little thick and there is any flex in the floor it will eventually crack, this type of cracking isn't much of an issue. If the wood or foam under the floor starts to break down and not offer much support, then there are a couple of issues. 1 there is a current problem with the support system that needs to be taken care of, and 2, you will soon have even more problems with the floor cracking which can lead to more problems below it.

 

[mochosla]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

What material do I use to seal the deck?

 

[Cadwelder]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

Well as ondarvr stated may not be much, but I think worth a few small explortory holes to check the condition of the wood underneath. If all is well, you only need to grind the surface good (24 to 36 grit) wipe down the dust with acetone and use a layer of ployester resin and CSM. Then you can recarpet, paint or whatever you intend to finish it with.

Some pictures of the cracks would help a lot.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

A Striper has a molded liner, so sealing the entire thing would be difficult and required quite a bit of work to make it look good. Just repairing the cracks with gel coat will only be a short term fix, it will soon crack again, probably the first time you walk on it.

If they are just minor gel coat cracks there is no real reason you need to do anything but learn to live with them.

If they are cracks from poor support, then you need to fix that issue before doing anything with the cracks.

We can't see what these cracks are from, so if you post some pics it will help a great deal.

 

[Cadwelder]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

Sorry I may have given some bad advice. I'm thinking bass boats, (wooden deck with carpet over it) I should have looked at the type boat you have, my bad.

Listen to ondarvr as he is much more familer with this craft (probably seen them being built)

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

That's funny, I have watched them being built. A good friend of mine was the production manager when they were located in Oregon, they eventully closed that plant though. The last time I talked with him he was a manager in China building yachts.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

Hello Mocho...

Im gonna go out on a limb here and say your talking about the NON-Skid pattern cracking ? ( you did say something about using Flex mold )

If so then yes. You can use the flex mold to repair your cracks In the skid.

Also if so..or If not..please post a picture so we can better address your condition .

YD.

PS. Flex-mold will send you a packet of male and female patterns of what they have .. with application guide..

 

[mochosla]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

Hello Mocho...

Im gonna go out on a limb here and say your talking about the NON-Skid pattern cracking ? ( you did say something about using Flex mold )

If so then yes. You can use the flex mold to repair your cracks In the skid.

Also if so..or If not..please post a picture so we can better address your condition .

YD.

PS. Flex-mold will send you a packet of male and female patterns of what they have .. with application guide..

The floor is a NON-Skid pattern and the cracks are fairly thin. I will take some pictures and upload them. Have you used Flex-Mold? is it a simple fix?

Thanks for your help.

Carlos Limon.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

Get them pics up .

Yup Flex mold is simple ( depending on the size of it ) .. oh..and you dont really have to have wax in your gel ..

I have used Flex-Mold yes many times ..

Get some pics and PM me if I happen to lose track of the thread.. we will post them..

YD.

 

[mochosla]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

Here are the pics. As you can tell, in some areas the surface is starting to chip away. The floor is still solid and I want to avoid soft spots. Is there a way to seal the deck?

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Cracks on my boat's deck!!

I'll answer the sealing the deck question as its been asked a few times and no one has given an answer....sorry...but...no...there is nothing you can put on it to seal it.


That gel coat is in bad shape, to actually fix it you need to grind off all of non skid down to the glass and then use the flex mold to redo the entire surface. Doing less will be a short term fix at best. Its not difficult to use the flex mold, but doing it on a large surface may take a little practice. You can put other types of non skid surfaces down a little easier.

Cracks like those won't develop into soft spots, they appear to be only in the gel coat and are related to a problem in application during construction.