Well, it seems I have to create a new topic to continue a the previous conversation (www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/post.asp?method=Reply&TOPIC_ID=155029&FORUM_ID=36). Apparently I was away from the site for too long.

In my defence, I have a good reason: my wife gave birth our first child

Anyway, I finally got out to the boat to take pictures of the damage (if anyone needs a refresher on what was wrong see the link above). I've attached the pictures and would love peoples comments on what my plan of attack should be.

I'm seriously tempted just to give it to the marina and say please fix but I know that will be far more expensive than doing it myself. But I should, theoretically, end up with a better repair.

Anyway here are the photos - two separate bits of damage. Thanks for the advice thus far.

The piece of wood drill down to remove the wooden plug and remove the old screw once you have picked out enough to use a screw drive to remove the screw

The gunwale can take a fair bit of a pounding at times so I'd suggest you use thickened epoxy to make sure the repair is nice and strong.

Cheers, Graeme

Select to expand quote

wongaga said..
The gunwale can take a fair bit of a pounding at times so I'd suggest you use thickened epoxy to make sure the repair is nice and strong.

Cheers, Graeme

Congrats on your baby!
I'm with Wongaga on this one epoxy would be the best, you can thicken it with a mix of silica and q cells or just buy some epifill or similar product. What's not clear is whether the gunwale is screwed or bolted.
If it's screwed you would be best to grind out a large section and feather the edges then glue a piece of hardwood leaving enough space to laminate a layer of fibreglass with epoxy over that.
If you use peel ply on the fibre glass you might be able to get away without filling on top of the fibreglass repair to get a smooth and passable finnish to fix the gunwale to. Otherwise just fill and sand the repair until it looks good.
I'm a big believer in using epoxy for all my repairs because I believe that some different types of polyester and vinylester resins when mixed have less than optimal bonding.
Good luck with it

I just looked a the pics again and it looks like maybe the gunwale is screwed on from underneath. If thats the case you just have to make the hole that the screw passes through well supported especially on the outside. This is what I would do.
1. grind out all the furry glass until you get to nice solid laminate;
2. Feather the edges to provide a nice bonding area 1: 7 if you have room.
3. clamp a piece of wood (with packing tape on it to prevent it sticking) underneath the repair area. make sure you either radius the edge or leave room for the lamiate to bond arond the curved part onto the verticl section.
4. using epoxy laminate bigger and bigger pieces of cloth until you equal the thickness of the existing area
5. Put peel ply on the last layer
6. grind the edge to match
7. drill a new hole