Novacraft Tufstuff completely worn down hull restore

I have a NC Prospector that the hull is worn down to the point you can start to see the weave and structure, but not structurally damaged. It's essentially worn off the gelcoat so needs more I suspect. My plan is to roll on 2-3 coats of non-waxed gelcoat then 1 coat of waxed. Other than recommending spraying...is this how you fix this issue...just add more gelcoat?

The bottom is pretty sandblasted already so suspect adhesion will be pretty solid.

Doing 2 tone. Red canoe, going with a cream colored bottom to act as a proper trim line. Also to show more easily where critical repairs will be needed in future

I would like to see some before and after photos of your canoe.

Here is the before

If it were me, I would not use polyester nor vinylester resin. I'd use epoxy resin.
And no need to cover the entire hull in several coats...I would clean the hull thoroughly with, uhmm, acetone maybe, then squeegee on epoxy resin in only those spots that are showing the substrate fabric.
Recoat those spots if necessary, then sand to blend and paint the entire hull.
Odd that there are so many areas that have "shed" the gel coat, in seemingly random spots. Almost as if the adhesion is suspect. Knowing how production boats are built, inside of a female mold, it's especially odd that the first layer in the build process didn't bond entirely over the whole hull.
Was this a hand layup hull?

stripperguy said:

Odd that there are so many areas that have "shed" the gel coat, in seemingly random spots. Almost as if the adhesion is suspect. Knowing how production boats are built, inside of a female mold, it's especially odd that the first layer in the build process didn't bond entirely over the whole hull.
Was this a hand layup hull?

Click to expand...

I have seen this a lot with used NovaCraft hulls. Usually after a relatively minor hit. The gelcoat will pop off but the layup looks good.

As I am bumbling through my repairs on a non-tinted gelcoat on a Super Nova, I have found that the gelcoat is FULL of tiny bubbles. A filet cut along a crack will leave the surface looking a bit swiss cheese-y. Weird.

I'd lean toward repairs as stripperguy suggested except that I might sand smooth(ish) and skip the painting because I'm not a huge "cosmetic" guy (though the paint would also protect the epoxy... ugh!)

Speaking of cosmetics... I love the looks of that hull. Certainly looks like it's been well-used but not abused and any boat that's seen that much use is certainly worthy of being repaired.

Keep us in the loop on your repairs and best of luck wearing it that thin again.

If you shipped it back to NC for a repair, they would use gel coat, that’s what I’d use as well. It seems that there is a lot of trepidation in applying gel coat when in reality it’s super easy, especially if you spray. The cost and speed of the repair will be lower as well.
Once you put epoxy and paint on, there’s no going back

I had a hull looked very similar, maybe worse. It was expedition tuff stuff, the gel coat was quite thick, so left big holes when it chipped off. I filled the holes with thickened epoxy, sanded the entire bottom, then made the canoe two tone, as shown in the pics.

I've not encountered Tuff Stuff or an equivalent layup in the wild. I like the promise of a stiff durable hull, bonus if it is a little lighter than Royalex.

I'm curious to see how your repairs turn out.