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cracks in gel coat

Old 07-15-2009, 01:13 PM
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Default cracks in gel coat

What do you do with stress cracks in the gel coat? I'm constantly getting shyt about hitting wave hard or wrong....does this cause the cracks?
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Old 07-15-2009, 01:25 PM
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Originally Posted by brian18330
What do you do with stress cracks in the gel coat? I'm constantly getting shyt about hitting wave hard or wrong....does this cause the cracks?
I am not sure who is giving you crap about hitting a wave wrong, but if it seems to "Slam" the boat uugg yea it will cause cracks, slam it hard enough it will break,
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Old 07-15-2009, 02:25 PM
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How do you avoid the boat slamming? It just seems some waves you cant avoid it?????????
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Old 07-15-2009, 02:42 PM
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The gel coat will pretty much only crack if the boat flexes or if it was not laid up properly. They are also caused by small air pockets between the gel and glass.

My AT doesn't have any exterior gel cracks. It does have a few in the cockpit. My Pantera had some gel cracks around the fairing. I had them fixed and when he ground them out there were some air pockets where the fairing met the deck.
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Old 07-15-2009, 04:15 PM
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Originally Posted by brian18330
How do you avoid the boat slamming? It just seems some waves you cant avoid it?????????
Sometimes you can't but with practice one normally learns how to launch off waves, or time the launch and landing as not to "slam" the bow into or through waves. If another experienced performance boater is telling you your being hard on the boat, you should listen to their advise. ANY BOAT can break if stuffed/slammed hard enough. Also it is normal to develop "spider cracks" looks like hair on the gel coat, for boats in rough water, this is caused by boat flexing when hitting large waves, (flexing is better than breaking).
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Old 07-15-2009, 05:33 PM
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Originally Posted by brian18330
What do you do with stress cracks in the gel coat? I'm constantly getting shyt about hitting wave hard or wrong....does this cause the cracks?
Try and hit the waves head on. Head the advise of your friends. Hitting a wave wrong at speed could be the difference between life or death.
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Old 07-15-2009, 06:55 PM
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Don't worry about the crack's if you don't start understanding the water in front of you, and learning how to deal with it, you WILL wind up WET..Like this dumb a$$

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjluQW-KBas
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Old 07-16-2009, 05:46 AM
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I used to boat in Utah and spent a little time with a guy that had a 33 outlaw with supercharged 454's. He had alot of cracks near the top of his keel, his story as to how he got them was he was in Havasu and it got "rough" and he hit a couple waves hard and crack.
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