Hull Delamination

[Garland]

Second Yamaha 230 boat I’ve owned and the dreaded delamination happened. Insurance won’t cover it and the repair shop wants $12K, won’t warranty it and says the other side will do the same as it sounds hollow.

The chemical bond clearly failed as there is a clean separation from the fiberglass. I got the boat for the kids so she doesn’t need to look pretty just not sink. Anyone know what the actual repair process is or should be? I’m not sure why the hull is fiberglass and the gel coat (I know it is actually something else) has fiberglass built into it.

Is this something a lot of sanding and thin layers of 3M high strength filler can handle? Or is it a job for biaxial glass and resin and a gel coat applied to the top. I have the labor, the time and I know the other side is going to fail. Combined with the materials are pretty cheap, it’s going to be a give it hell and learn something project. The labor team is very familiar with car repair and fiberglass repair. Any advise or thoughts, other than don’t do it you idiot, would be appreciated.

 

[Exciter 220]

Before I sank a lot of money into it, I'd either try to find a similar boat that has blown engines and swap them, OR I might try to strip all the gelcoat off and just paint it with epoxy paint. Some boats are not gelcoated.

 

[Garland]

Before I sank a lot of money into it, I'd either try to find a similar boat that has blown engines and swap them, OR I might try to strip all the gelcoat off and just paint it with epoxy paint. Some boats are not gelcoated.

Awesome suggestions, thank you. Epoxy paint is a brilliant idea, it wouldn’t look like a boat, but to the point it wouldn’t leak and would allow the kids to beat it up.

 

[Exciter 220]

One other thing, you could gelcoat it yourself. Hard to do on the bottom, but you're not looking for perfection. If you take it to a fiberglass shop, they will want to make it look new, which is why it's so expensive. They don't want people to see a boat that they did that's not perfect and could damage their reputation. That's not what you're after.