Tree Damage

When making my canoe storage area a few years back, I thought "It's not ideal, but a tree would have to fall in a very specific way to impact my boats." I'm old enough to know what happens when you tempt the universe like that, but apparently not smart enough to heed that knowledge. So, of course, a tree fell in a very specific way during a recent windstorm, and it of course hit my SRT, the boat I'm most partial to (2 comeuppances for the price of 1!).

The good news - I don't think it's that bad (though I could certainly be wrong, given how much I don't know). In any case, it unquestionably could have been far worse. The bad news - I have no experience working with fiberglass, gel coat, etc. I think that all of the impacted areas should probably be patched, both inside and out - just looking for some feedback from people who actually have experience. Should I repair this myself, or seek out a professional? I won't be attempting repair until spring (unless not repairing quickly is a bad idea), and I do have plenty of experience working with epoxy and epoxy-like materials so I'm confident that I can do an adequate job with some reading and experimenting. I'm less confident that I can do an aesthetically pleasing job, especially with gel coat repair, but aesthetics are pretty dang low on my priority list, as you can probably tell by how many non-tree related scratches I've put on this hull in less than a year.

In any case, here's the damage.

comeuppance

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I haven't heard that word used by anyone other than myself since I left the east coast. My grandfather was from new Brunswick, and that's where I first heard it, such a good word, especially when combined with "That Big Feelin So and So will get his comeuppance soon".

My apologies, on to the canoe. I'm not expert, and I have never been overly concerned with looks. I'm sure others will give you better advice. It doesn't look that bad to me. I would sand the outside where the creases are, fill in any gel cracks with thickened epoxy and then sand them fair, then lay a piece of six ounce cloth over the affected areas and epoxy it on. I would probably put a layer on the inner hull too. I hope you were able to use the tree for firewood or something, at least the tree would have gotten a comeuppance too.

closing in on the end of winter, and i'd like to make repairs before canoeing season hits so i don't lose any days that i could be out on the water. just wondering if anyone else has any repair advice, or retailer/brand suggestions for fiberglass cloth, gelcoat, etc. i'm assuming that west system epoxy would work well - i have access to this through work, both the 205 and 206 hardeners, plus filler (i think 406?).

also - if anyone in maine with experience wants to walk me through making the repairs, i'd be happy to show up with everything necessary plus pay for your time/expertise.

West systems is great.

I've used Total Boat (Jamestown Distributors) for all three of my repair orders.

I use 4oz or 6oz cloth.

There are some great threads on here for walking through repairs. Hemlock would probably also help you out if you give them a ring.

I’d contact Hemlock and discuss. No doubt you could slap some FG and epoxy on the damaged area and it would be strong and watertight. Those are the main things, I guess. But I expect the wrinkles are there to stay, which could possibly change the way the boat handles.

Maybe there is a way to get wrinkles out, but I’m thinking the way to get them out is with a saw! Cut away all the deformed area and then fill it in with a fabric patch. And for the shape of the patch to match the original, you’d need something like a mold. That’s why I think you should talk with Hemlock. They have the mold. If there’s a way to remove wrinkles without cutting them out, they probably know that, too.

Good luck. An SRT is too nice a boat to waste.

Took the advice and reached out to Hemlock - their rundown was basically what others here have said - could have been much worse, but should be patched. Their recommendation again largely followed what others have said, with some minor changes for cosmetic and other reasons. Putting the relevant portion of what they said below. In any case, I'm going to order materials and then attempt my repairs once they arrive. Thanks to all for their input and help.

The procedure I would recommend is to do the following:

Sand the gel coat that is on and around the damaged area- The repair materials won't stick as well to the shiny gel coat. It doesn't necessarily need to be totally removed but it wouldn't hurt to get all the way down to the glass layer. Don't go too far and make the kevlar turn fuzzy.
Add a patch to both the inside and the outside of the boat to make sure that everything is still water tight and to return stiffness to the damaged area. A range of composites materials can work for this. Here at the shop we would probably use fiberglass (S-glass) on the exterior of the boat and then the same carbon/kevlar weave on the interior trying to get the weave pattern to match up as closely as possible. We would use vinyl ester resin for the patches because that is what was used in your boat.

If you want the repair to look nice you can put new gel coat over the exterior patch. This is a little tricky but not impossible. It requires you to put the gel coat on in a layer that is thicker than the original coat and then wet sand it back to match the surrounding area. You can start with something around 100 grit but then finish with at least 100 grit. It won't have the same shiny finish without using a buffer and some mirror finish buffing compound after the sanding (we use 3m buffing compounds.)

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I hope they mean start with 100 grit and end with 1000 grit.
Jim