Gel Coat Crack Next to Tower Mount

Tomato · Criminal Joined: 22 Apr 2003 Posts: 88 City: Escalon, CA

Noticed my first gel coat crack coming out from behind my tower mount the other day. Skylon says this is common and that it should not get any longer than 1-1.5 inches.

Do you agree? Is this anything to worry about?

Thanks.

Swass · Guest

First off, I'd get extraordinarily angry at Skylon's response. Common? Well, then, redesign your f'ing tower! A properly designed and installed tower should not cause cracks of any size, shape or form.

NAW · Posted: Jul 03, 2003 9:46 am Post subject:

Better get back on the horn with Skylon! There should be ZERO cracking by tower mounts, or anywhere else for that matter.

Tomato · Criminal Joined: 22 Apr 2003 Posts: 88 City: Escalon, CA

That's what I thought. The issue is that I installed it myslef. They mentioned that any type of burr left after drilling can cause a small crack. I made the mistake of drilling a small pilot hole before the larger one on the first mount. This made the larger hole a bit rough and tough to deburr. As long as it doesn't get any worse and I don't get any near the other mounts, I should be fine.

Thanks for the comments.

salmon_tacos · Posted: Jul 03, 2003 1:35 pm Post subject:

I would undo the mount in question and re-chamfer the edges of the holes at least if they are rough. Run a big drill bit backwards and twist some fine sandpaper in there with your fingertip. If you have doubts about the other holes, I'd go ahead and do it to all of them.

You could probably stop the gelcoat crack by drilling a little hole through the gelcoat at the end of it (just like in a windshield) but you might not want to do that. I'm not sure how the pros repair the cracks. I'd guess that they would sand it all the way down to the glass and fill it with something.

FYI, I heard that the gelcoat cracking that radiates from the bolt holes usually happens because the holes are not chamfered (or are poorly done) so the lateral forces on the bolts push on the gelcoat instead of the core/glass/resin of the hull.

Fishmaster · Posted: Jul 03, 2003 7:11 pm Post subject:

First, dont bust Skylon's chops too hard, they build a well engineered tower and do what is possible to prevent this, but in the real world it happens. It happens with everyones towers, including ours, but a lot less often then anybody thinks. When it does happen we are pissed in a big way becuase we love our boats. If I had to choose between my wife or my boat - nevermind on that thought thread!

Most people that add a tower to their boat do it theirselves, few have problems but some will. The two most common causes is over tightening the bases and an "event" that causes cracking. "Events" are normally the tower hiting something, a big tube (dont pull with a tower becuase they cant leg go like a person) diving into a wake, people riding on the tower, etc, etc.

If you dont know how to work with Gelcoat then get a fiberglass person to fix the gelcoat and add a few more layers of cloth underneath to prevent it in the future. The crack may or may not keep growing (probably will) but keep riding as it is cosmetic and not structural unless you see similar cracking around the backing plate.

My $0.02 but I could be wrong!

Bill

Tomato · Criminal Joined: 22 Apr 2003 Posts: 88 City: Escalon, CA

Salmon/Bill: Thanks much for the insight. I think Salmon is right and I need to chamfer the first hole I drilled a bit better. I am very happy with Skylon's tower-this isn't their fault.

PimpinD · Addict Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Posts: 785 City: Orlando, FL

I have the same problem with the spider cracks on one mount of my zeroflex tower on my 1994 prostar 205, when we dry dock the boat, my dad and i are gonna do a lil repair on it, see if we can get rid of them, they arent very long and in 2 months of riding with the boat they havent gotten any bigger so im not really worried. My dad mentioned something about drilling a hole at the end of the crack to stop it from getting bigger then filling it with this type of epoxy cement boat hull fill that they use on the bigger cruise ships. When i get home ill find out the name and let u know how the repair went.

Tomato · Criminal Joined: 22 Apr 2003 Posts: 88 City: Escalon, CA

Cool, thanks.

Nor*Cal · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 9479 City: Sac

http://www.fibreglass.com/techgel.htm
http://www.diy-boat.com/Pages/Archives/links/fiberg.html

2 links with tips on how to fix spider cracks. I have some spider cracks near my windshield that need fixing. Post how you fixed it so we can all learn from each other.