A Quick Fix

On the trip almost to Graves light I put a ding in the side of the Q-Boat that caused a leak. It was just a brush that knocked out a little gelcoat, but it was on a point in the chine where there was only a single layer of glassfibre and a thin layer of gelcoat. It is a spot of shoddy construction that reminds me that quality control is not one of the British virtues.
Needless to say I was not looking forward to paying for the repair, or for having the Q-Boat out of commission for a month or more. to fix it right would require pulling out all the gelcoat where the glassfibre was thin, laying in another layer of glass, and reapplying the gelcoat. I figured it would cost between $500 and a $1000.
Fortunately JS told me to just patch it with SolarRez. It doesn't need to be mixed and sets in the sunlight. According to JS, an idiot could use it seal a leak and that it should last for the rest of the season - at least.
I've never seen an easy repair I couldn't screw up. I have a hard time getting the squeeze tube gelcoat to cover up scratches. I'm still smarting from the Marine Tec debacle. Needless to say I was skittish about doing the repair work myself, but I figured if I screwed it up Carl could just fix it....
It turns out that the repair was as easy as JS said. It took two applications to seal the hole completely, but it was a piece of cake. Each layer dried in a few hours. The whole repair took a single day.
It isn't the prettiest repair. The SolarRez dries clear so it sticks out. It works though.
Now I just need to get the Q-Boat in the water to see if it is waterproof. As it turns out I could have waited a month or so to get the repair done.....