GRP or ‘fibreglass’ damage occurs all the time in boating. Normally caused by either a collision between two or more boats, collision when mooring, or damage from extreme whether.
Scrapes and grazes in the gel-coat surface are normally fairly superficial and as long as the underlying laminate is un-damaged, they can be filled, blocked down and polished out. Larger areas of gel-coat damage and fracturing or de-laminating of the underlying substrate may need to be ground back deeper and in some cases, additional laminate applied before surface repairs are done.
With more serious impact damage that has holed the hull or stress cracked the laminate, we need to replace the laminate in the area and sometimes add additional strength with GRP . ‘It nearly always looks worse than it really is.’
We carry out both cosmetic and structural GRP work, in polyester and epoxy. We can match most colours in gel-coat and paint.
In some cases where boats are fairly new, less than 5-6 years old, we can obtain gel-coat from the factory, working from the boat’s H.I.N, or ‘hull identification number’. This is normally found moulded into the boat hull near the transom. With factory gel-coat in hand, the repair work takes very little time, as matching is not required.
We not only repair exterior damage, often we are asked to fabricate additional GRP structures inside the hull, or repair GRP that has broken away.
Owners should be aware that when booking in the external GRP jobs, it is very weather dependant, so accurate time scales are impossible during the colder months. Contact us about any GRP damage or queries on your boat you are worried about. We will advise you of the best cure or reassure you that nothing needs to be done.
