Gelcoat Crazing

[Gary Freeburg]

I have a lot of gelcoat crazing in the area between the nonskid and caprail on my '73 E 27. It sort of looks like the typical dried river bed. There appears to be no structural problem here as the decks are solid and the stanchions show no signs of loosening or leaking. I searched through some of the old threads on gelcoat repair and for my peace of mind am checking in to see if it is possible to thoroughly scrape and clean the area, apply new gelcoat with a 5" plastic knife and then sand to smooth it out? I am kind of skeptical about painting this area after following recent threads about doing just that.
Thanks,
Gary Freeburg
SV Katmai

 

[rwthomas1]

A friend of mine got a 24ft powerboat for FREE two years ago. It was in sad shape cosmetically with heavy crazing, "dried riverbed" gelcoat all over it, like you describe. He sanded and rolled two coats of Interlux high build primer and then rolled and tipped two coats of Interlux two part polyurethane topcoat, sanding between all coats. The result was quite nice. You cannot see the crazing at all, the surface is nice and shiney and smooth still two years later. Depending on your investment and time this may be an option? RT

 

[NateHanson]

Extensive Crazing all over a surface ("alligatoring") can be caused by overly thick gelcoat. It doesn't expand and contract at the same rate as the resin below, so if it's too think it'll crack all over.

However, if it's localized to one area, especially where one surface joins another (caprail to deck) I'd be a little concerned that the cracks might indicated that there's excessive flexing in that area. Do the cracks run parallel to the caprail, concentrated in the turn of the deck/caprail? If yes, painting over them will likely only be a temporary fix.

Nate

 

[Gary Freeburg]

Nate, Rob,
I tend to think that the problem is with a heavy layer of gelcoat. The crazying does look exactly like the "dried riverbed", no parallel to caprail cracking. This baby looks like she's been in the sun too long. I want her to look nice but not at the expense of keeping her tied to the dock all summer. Thanks for the information Rob. I may look into giving her a paint job as you described.
Thanks,
Gary Freeburg
SV Katmai