Repairing goldenglass

Have a Swift Algonquin in goldenglass and have a crack in one of the floatation humps. What is the best method for a quick and good repair

It could be as simple as sanding
around the crack and then laying down a couple of concentric layers of bias-cut (diagonal fiber orientation) 6 oz glass, larger patch first, using epoxy resin. You could use Kevlar if you have it, but unlike glass, it does not wet out transparent, so it’s harder to see what you’re doing. If it’s a high stress area, you might go for 3 concentric layers.



It is possible that even bias-cut glass will resist conforming to the convex and concave surfaces of the rib, but in most cases ribs are fairly rounded. It is possible to lay food wrap over the wet cloth and press foam down to force the glass layers close to the hull, but it’s something that requires experience. It can just push the fibers out of place and create a mess.



Note that the rib should be dried out thoroughly for the best results. Some days in the sun may be enough.

Laying fiberglass cloth
Thanks, repairing a fiberglass canoe a tree limb fell on in 1980 and crushed part of canoe hull. Fiberglass stretched, but did not tear. Now, after 30 years, gel coat cracked. Where fiberglass stretched, seems weak like resin has separated from fiberglass cloth threads, sun shines through fiberglass revealing weak areas/cracks. Now I know how to lay fiberglass cloth for patch over the weak areas.

Yeah, try to get it dried out, and use
new cloth and resin so as to exclude water. SOME canoes made with polyester back in the 70s, like a Mad River Compatriot I bought then, were susceptible to resin weakening and/or blistering because polyester resins are often inclined to chemically interact with minute amounts of infiltrated water in a process called “hydrolysis.” For some reason, another polyester/glass canoe I bought back then did not show signs of hydrolysis.



You can read about hydrolysis on the West epoxy systems site if you want to. It’s among the technical repair bulletins.



Later canoes are built mostly with vinyl ester, much less susceptible to hydrolysis, or with epoxy, which is almost immune to the phenomenon.

GP, I don’t want to promise much, but
I am in Atlanta, we travel around north Georgia quite a bit, and it’s possible I could look at the boat some time.