repair a chip in the bow

1pointofview

ok, kinda bummed..   some how, from somewhere, something hit the front of my ss188 on the middle/port side of the bow.  it only looks like a surface chip and not a crack.  The white outside finish looks like it is the only thing that was affected.  the brown layer on top of the wood is not affected from what I can tell. It is not an area that is normally in water so I am not worried about leaks but is more cosmetic than anything but I would like to fix it. is this a warranty or a do it your self type fix?

nquirk

@1pointofview.  Unfortunately, unless the damage was due to failure of the boat hull itself (structural cracks resulting in splitting of your hull's gel coat) its not a warranty issue.

You can buy repair kits and do it yourself but if this isn't your area of expertise, search for a local fiberglass repair place.  It should be fairly inexpensive to have someone repair it for you.

What you have is a missing 'chunk' of gel coat which is the smooth white outer coating.  The brown layer you're seeing is the fiberglass structure of the hull.   Since it's above the water line it shouldn't cause any issues other than being cosmetic and obviously bugging you looking at it (trust me I know, I have a few small ones in my gel coat that I'm getting repaired this fall for the same reason)

yzfmik

I used Spectrum Color Gel Coat Patch Paste Repair to repair some scrapes on the bottom of my hull caused by drifting into some rocks.  I had no experience with this type of repair and it came out very good.  I can see where I did the repair, but unless you're looking, it's not noticeable.  

1pointofview

thanks all.  the worse part about it all is the boat was about 20 minutes old when it happened.  we just took ownership of it, put is the water, anchored out at a sand bar to hang out and as I was in the water I saw it.  I have used fiberglass repair kits for my fiberglass tub so I will go to the nearest marine shop and pick up a kit.

1pointofview

so what is the preferred gel coat patch kit? I found one by west marine but there were no customer comments/recommendations.

yzfmik

When I researched it I found Spectrum Color to be highly recommended and I had a great experience with it. You just need your hull color and its a perfect match.

1pointofview

thanks, I went to my local marina and bought a small tube of evercoat gel coat scratch repair. Since this gash was well out of the water they recommended putting this on and see how it holds up.  It comes in a tube and went on like a glue.  I put it on in layers and after the 3rd layer it looked great.  Will wet sand it tomorrow after it fully dries and sets and put a polish on it.  fell much better about it today than I did 2 days ago.