Disaster my first time out! 🤦🏽‍♂️

[JPINOT]

Took my first trip to the coast and disaster struck! Went out first day stayed close to boat ramp didn’t have any issues with beaching or anything else. Second day forgot to fully lock port side clean out plug so couldn’t get any power and had major cavitation. Finally realized that what was going on and locked in place. Purred like a cat after that .

After beaching it twice and having to push it out twice to get it unstuck disaster struck. Hit some rocks or a oyster reef . My Garmin doesn’t have depths or any detail for the coastal area so that should have been my first red flag to turn around.

So now I turn to the forum for assistance! I am pretty handy with body work so I am planning on ordering some gel coat and trying to fix myself. Any input would be appreciated. And yes I will be installing a keel guard once I fix it .

 

[HangOutdoors]

It is a newer boat, won't your insurance take care of it and you could be done with it and have it fixed up nice? May lose your boat for a bit. Did you tear off the transducer as well? Looks like something was bolted to your ride plate.

 

[Scottintexas]

We've seen and fixed worse, probably not that bad, we've got acouple of tgreads about diy gelcoat

 

[JPINOT]

It is a newer boat, won't your insurance take care of it and you could be done with it and have it fixed up nice? May lose your boat for a bit. Did you tear off the transducer as well? Looks like something was bolted to your ride plate.

No i think those holes were from previous owner trying to install transducer. He mentioned he reinstalled with a different mount. Trying to avoid insurance claim.

 

[RobbieO]

I feel your pain. I did damage to my boat on her maiden voyage as well. I got grounded pretty good and the Sheriff pulled me out. $6800 in damages. BoatUS (Geico) paid all but $1200. One thing I learned was to set my depth alarm to at least 6-8 feet. It came set at around 2 feet. I never checked the setting. What a dumbass.

 

[AboveTheBest]

I think I might go a little easier on the beaching/oystering in the future... ouch!

 

[the MfM]

better order some resin, silica and microspheres etc. to go with that gel coat.

 

[JPINOT]

I feel your pain. I did damage to my boat on her maiden voyage as well. I got grounded pretty good and the Sheriff pulled me out. $6800 in damages. BoatUS (Geico) paid all but $1200. One thing I learned was to set my depth alarm to at least 6-8 feet. It came set at around 2 feet. I never checked the setting. What a dumbass.

Trying to avoid the insurance claim, did your insurance go up a lot?

 

[RobbieO]

Trying to avoid the insurance claim, did your insurance go up a lot?

Not yet. Claim was in April. Expecting a huge increase.

 

[HangOutdoors]

Doesn't Navionics have enough information as a backup to your Garmin if you don't have the proper charts? Just use it on your phone.

 

[Liveto99]

I go over shallows but never beach my boat. I walk in, also I said don’t hit rocks I think you might have. Here I anchored and walked in.

 

[Liveto99]

It doesn’t look like tremendous fiberglass damage if you don’t wet slip your boat you could use it there’s nothing physically really wrong with that I would put a coat of spray paint on it and use it if it was memorial day weekend.

 

[Cambo]

After you do the gel coat repair look into getting the keel sprayed with truck bed liner instead of the keel guard. This way it runs the entire length of the hull. You could even have the bed liner go wider if the gel coat repair doesn’t look perfect and it’s black easy blend with the hull

 

[HangOutdoors]

The truck bed liner looks good and may prevent minor abrasive scratches, but I am unclear how it will help impacts, where the Keel Guard would. Hitting a rock, floating debris or an oyster bed would seem like it would rip through bed liner spray the keel guard is significantly thicker and provides better protection from those events. My truck bed with a double spray got dented as well as gouged.

 

[fatboyroy]

A $1000 gps with good chart plotter is a great investment. Everytime you’re in an unfamiliar water you can’t really go on plane without risking grounding. Chart plotter reduce that risk significantly.

 

[Babin Farms]

Just buy a long enough keel guard to go the entire length of the keel if that's what's you want. I'm with @HangOutdoors on this one with the bed liner. I've seen every brand of bed liner either chip, get scraped off, peel and come off in about any other way. All the peel/stick keel guards I've seen also have a lifetime warranty so if it starts to come off or gets damaged they will give you a new one at no cost.

 

[HangOutdoors]

A $1000 gps with good chart plotter is a great investment. Everytime you’re in an unfamiliar water you can’t really go on plane without risking grounding. Chart plotter reduce that risk significantly.

He has a Garmin I believe, just not the proper maps loaded. Navionics on the phone as a backup for $20 is a solid investment.

 

[HangOutdoors]

I go over shallows but never beach my boat. I walk in, also I said don’t hit rocks I think you might have. Here I anchored and walked in.View attachment 151604

Yeah, that is where I want to be in my boat..... Someday

 

[Cambo]

I agree that the keel guard will take impacts better . But this boat has some major hull imperfections that the keel guard will not cover and bed liner would be a last resort if the gel gloss repair is not perfect. Anyone that has worked with black gloss repairs knows how difficult they are to match up. But please keep us posted on the process . Do they even make a keel guard that will go the entire hull ? and how would it stick to the shape on the back ?

 

[Wrecked Rooster]

I don’t know about bed liner on a boat, but I have bullet liner on the rock rails on my truck and I have bounced those off rocks and had the full body weight of the truck on the rails while sliding across the rocks and there is no damage. I still think the keel guard is a good idea.