Fiberglass repair on 41 year old boat

[ChrisMA]

I just started pressure washer sandblasting the multiple layers of bottom paint off of my 1969 Boston Whaler. What I have found has been less than satisfying. I was hoping to wetsand and buff the bottom, but it appears the gelcoat is too far gone for that. I guess the idea now is to fill and re-bottom paint the boat as it will be on a trailer. The good news is I weighed the hull and it is not waterlogged one bit. I didn't capture a photo of it, but in some places there are divots in the fiberglass around 1/8" in diameter, are these blisters?

Should I fill all these cracks and voids in the gelcoat with a material like the Evercoat Gel Paste?

What are my other options?

The boat will be on a trailer, so it doesn't need "real" bottom paint, what is good for painting the bottom of the boat that is a little less toxic?

In the very bottom middle of this image, you can see some divots.

 

[i386]

Re: Fiberglass repair on 41 year old boat

Mine was in similar shape when I started. The route I took was to fill the worst with epoxy resin thickened with cabosil + 3M glass bubbles to make it sandable. Then 3 coats of Interlux Epoxy Primekote. And finally 2 coats of Interlux Perfection. It's a 2-part poly paint that cures hard as nails.

There are probably better and worse ways to do it, but this is how I did it.

 

[ChrisMA]

Re: Fiberglass repair on 41 year old boat

That looks really great, earlier this year I painted my 16' Starcraft aluminum boat with Interlux one-part polyurethane paint and it came out great. The fiberglass above the waterline is in really great shape and I was hoping to avoid painting the entire hull as I am not going to be able to flip a 17' hull that weighs 800 pounds. If you can successfully fill holes in gelcoat I guess I could be ok. I am trying to make it watertight and not too beautiful. Is the Evercoat gel paste a thickened gelcoat that would serve the same purpose?



Chris