Minor Tornado Damage

[dgfreeze]

Well, about a week ago, a tornado came through this area, and tore up the building my boat was stored in. Looking at some other buildings nearby, it could’ve been much much worse, so I’m incredibly grateful for that. Pretty much all I’ll be needing is some gelcoat repair and a new custom cover. Anybody have any recommendations on where to take it? So far, I’ve done my own gelcoat repairs, but if insurance is going to cover it, I think I’d rather just let someone else do it.

 

[Dave burke]

Yikes, glad it's pretty minor, looking at the building could have been a lot worse

 

[dgfreeze]

Yep, several buildings within a couple hundred yards were completely flattened. All in all, I'm extremely grateful. In the first pic, you can see a board that landed inside the boat. It was nose down on the captain's chair, but somehow didn't appear to do any damage. *Edit* - sorry, second pic

 

[Ronnie]

If the gelcoat is just scratched versus having a hole in the hull you may consider pocketing the money instead of having it repaired. Assuming you can live with the sight of the damage.

I had a terrible docking experience a few years back where I put a small, quarter sized hole on the bow above the waterline and gouged the gel coat where the swim deck transitions to the cockpit on the drivers side, this was about the size of a half dollar.

I got a quote to repair it and the insurance assessor was there at the same time to validate it. Total cost to repair was close to $3,600, most of it was labor (lots of sanding to get the new paint to match the surround areas. Personally could have lived with the damaged gel coat but not the hole in the bow.

The other thing I recall is that the insurance company made the check out to me and my wife as co-owners of the boat. If I owed any money on it the check would have been made out to the repair shop. Also my deductible was small but my insurance premiums have increased every year since.

 

[dgfreeze]

Yeah, if the scratches were just in the gelcoat, I’d probably leave it and do it myself as I have time, but they are through the gelcoat, exposing the fiberglass. And one of them is at waterline. Otherwise, I’d consider pocketing the money and doing the work. As for the cover, that’s a little beyond my skill set. I reupholstered the whole boat myself, but I feel like the cover is a slightly different ordeal, and since we moved a year ago, I don’t have a barn big enough to put the boat in to work on it. I’ll have one eventually, but it’ll be a few years.