Necky Arluk III - Fiberglass Repairs

I have aquired a '92 Necky Arluk III that is in need of a couple repairs. I think I know what I want to do - - – then again it’s my first time.



Rear hatch cowling has basically been pulled out of the main hull. Nice and clean seperation pretty much. From what it looks like, it appears Necky used something similar to Bondo to ahere the cowling ring to the hull. There is one small crack in the hull about 1/2" from the edge of the hole.


    • In this location, I’m thinking I should remove or chamfer the filler out to creat a fillet location to reseat the cowling ring. I have considered removing all the filler, and redoing it. In the spot where the crack is, I’m assuming the removing the filler and putting in some glass cloth would be optimal.
    • Since I have the boat hanging from the ceiling and upside down, I can stand and work. When I get to resetting the cowling, I’m thinking this is the best position to do this so that the filler epoxy fills the gaps inside the hull without running/dripping away.



      The next area is a crack on top the hull right in front of the grab handle. This is apx 12" fron the end of the bow, and 34" into the bow from the front hatch (and my arms are not that long) This crack is about 4 inches left to right across the top, and the gelcoat has been damaged (chunks removed


    • Again, I’m gonna work on this with the boat hull upside down so I can stand with my head inside the hatch, although I won’t be able to have a hand and my head in there very easily. I have to assume I’ll be working with long brush handles and “grabby tools” for lack of a better description. Epoxy/glass/epoxy - but I’m gonna have a hard time seeing what I’m doing.



      I have not found out if this boat was epoxy, or polyester, but I am assuming epoxy at this point.



      Any thoughts - suggestions - Ideas - (oh my, what did I get into thoughts)



      ??Web site references you think are worthwhile to look at??

I’d assume
Polyester.

I thought vinylester
either way epoxy will work fine

That’s what I was thinking
I have been doing some reading, and it looks like Epoxy would be fine. At least the repairs will be from the inside except where I’ll have to fix gelcoat.

fiberglass repair Arluk III
about your gelcoat repair over epoxy…gelcoat doesn’t adhere well to epoxy. perhaps you already have found this out or know this. Just for future reference.