Repair woes - GRP - can of worms part 2???

S

sausage

N/A
Joined
11 Mar 2009
Messages
35
Visit site
Im looking for a second hand yacht. Ive heard many people state that repairs to GRP are often better than the original glassing. However, Ive now seen two yachts which have had repairs within the last 5 years, and both repaired at very reputable yards.
On both yachts the repairs need redoing, and are in structurally important areas so are indeed very worrying.

I have seen a third yacht that needed a repair, which has since been done.
If she hadnt needed the repair when I found her I would definately be sailing on her today (god willing).
Im really reluctant to get involved with it though, but she really seems like the only option left.... after a year of looking and thousands spent travelling europe and surveying yachts, Im at the end of my tether in a most upsetting way and am very seriously thinking of giving up on the dream.

So, my rant now over, my question is - what the blazes is going on with repaired boats? How can I be told from many different sources that repairs are"better than new", and yet all the repaired yachts need the repair doing again at the cost of tens of thousands.

Is this a myth about the repairs?

Thanks
Mark
 
I suspect that any repair that was done and never failed you would no hear about. However is indeed something we all like to look into.

Personally I have carried out more fibreglass repairs than most, and we are talking of a period spanning more than 40 years.

In my Business I use fibreglass almost every day, more days than not and work completed comes with a written warranty. Do you think I, or anyone else would offer that if you thought for one moment that the job you just completed was going to fail.

Needless to say I have been involved in repairs that others did and that showed signs of failure.

But all these fit int a few categories:
The repairer had no idea what they were doing.
Not enough material used, leading to flexing.
Too much material applied causing a hard spot and cracking around the repair.
Wrong resin used. wrong mix. wrong cloth or mat or substrate.
Wrong materials included. Poor application.

The anoying part is that if they read what was on the tin or the application sheets most of the above would not happen.

If you decide to purchase the boat of your dreams and ever need a repair ask them if it covered by a warranty and more important how is the warranty applied. This refers to the cost of lift out and back in included in the warranty, and as many other "good to have" clauses included.

Look, even the repairs carried out by idiots will work 98% of the time, fibreglassing is not rocket science, just read up on it, ask questions and you will be ok.

I hope this helps.

Avagoodweekend......
 
I think that there is a delusion that is carried over from car maintanance that it's always better to get a professional to do any work. This doesn't necessarily carry over into boats. In my experience many boatyards employ (as a proportion of their overall staff) many people that haven't the first clue about boats.

On the occasions that I haven't been able to do the work, or be in attendance, myself, I've had my boat lifted out and set down with the majority of the weight of the boat taken by the rudder for a week, hatches broken, not tied to a pontoon properly and floated off into the middle of the marina, fuel cap not replaced and fuel tank flooded with rainwater and two stanchions "mysteriously" bent.

I'm not saying that there aren't any good boatyards but in my experience I can catagorically say that I've actually never had any work done, even basic stuff like a refuel or a lift out, by a boatyard and not had it ballsed up. With the exception of the man who maintains my engine who isn't really a professional.

Rant over: I'd do the GRP repair yourself, it's really easy, just don't set the wooden mixing spoon on fire like I did first time.
 
Wise words.
I sail my boat with complete confidence in all weathers and yet I have rebuilt the bow tip because it once got crushed against a heavy metal buoy(mea culpa) and also the entire keel floors have been rebuilt and reinforced.Oh I also rebuilt the area under the mast heel because it was caving in due to a mast post that wasn't straight on top under the cabin roof.That's Westerly for you.
You can't get more structural than that and I've done a few thousands of miles in sometimes rough weather and nothing came apart.
That's the beauty of fiberglass .Armed with a bit of reading and commonsense you can do just about anything.
 
I don't know how these repairs failed so this may or may not be relevant, but here's my 2 cents worth: use epoxy not polyester resins. In a secondary bond, shrinkage in the setting polyester matrix sets up tension that can contribute to the failure of the repair. Epoxy doesn't shrink like polyester so you get a better bond.
 
The only GRP thing I have crunched hard was a Lark dinghy in 'combat' /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif, with considerable nasty foredeck damage. It was repaired beautifully by our local Renault dealer in theri body shop, whose boss just happened to be a very dedicated cruising sailor, so I know really good 'as new' repairs can be done by professionals..its just finding one you can trust isn't it.

For the rest of us its the fear of making it worse that stops us trying, or lack of time..those are my excuses /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

The Renault dealership is long closed, and the boss is probably enjoying a G&T at the great Marina in the Sky. I had my first ever job there serving petrol and preparing cars for sale ( polishing and more polishing /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

Tim
 
my guess is that you are looking for a second hand boat, at a bargain price , but without any faults ie as new. Got to be realistic. If its big and cheap there will be work to do.

Who is saying that the repairs are poor? Is it a surveyor?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Needless to say,I use epoxy everytime,but I've done very strong repairs with polyester .It's all down to preparation.

[/ QUOTE ]
It's all down to the bonding. New polyester does not stick well to old polyester, but new epoxy does stick well to old polyester and new polyester sticks well to new epoxy. The logical thing to do, therefore, is to start with a layer of epoxy, then finishing the repair layup in polyester.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top