Diamond tread GRP repair

[charlumax]

I’ve noticed a few small areas on the starboard side accessway, biggest about 5mm across, where the GRP is lifting off, I reckon caused by a too powerful jet washer. it’s small but I think with all these things if you leave it it will get worse , esp. over winter if water gets underneath and freezes. A couple of photos attached.

Can anyone advise if a diy repair is possible ?

 

[PaulRainbow]

Buy some flowcoat and fill it. With care you can sand it when it's dry so it blends on.

 

[spannerman]

A tip I got when visiting the Princess factory to repair textured gelcoat was to get a piece of plasticene and press it on a good section to get an imprint, then fill the damaged area wirh gelcoat and align the pattern in the plasticene with the surrounding texture and press it down so it pushes the new gelcoat into a patterened finish and remove when its cured.

 

[BobnLesley]

A tip I got when visiting the Princess factory to repair textured gelcoat was to get a piece of plasticene and press it on a good section to get an imprint, then fill the damaged area wirh gelcoat and align the pattern in the plasticene with the surrounding texture and press it down so it pushes the new gelcoat into a patterened finish and remove when its cured.

This. A chap in St Martin did something very similar to repair a friend's yacht deck.

 

[Mistroma]

This. A chap in St Martin did something very similar to repair a friend's yacht deck.

I was going to suggest the same thing. I think I mentioned it here a few years ago and first used it on a Hurley 20 in the 70s, certainly a while ago. I remember it working especially well on my old Southerly and almost impossible to spot the repair.

 

[Kendal]

I did the same to mine a few years ago. My boat is a Searay and this company Gibco Flex-Mold, Non Skid Surfaces do repair moulds. I purchased a silicone rubber kit and made my own mould using my anchor locker, which I removed from the boat, as a template. It takes some practice to do ( I know because I seriously messed mine up first time) so if you go down the mould route, I would also suggest you get some 2 part modelling plastic and create a test panel to play with before you do the real thing. It's really important to make sure that you aren't tempted to remove the mould until the gelcoat has properly cured. The biggest challenge for me was matching the gelcoat colour.