Bilge/Drain Plug area Gel-Coat CRACKS

[susqking]

First off I'm not bashing my boat or any Parker but I thought I would share an issue with my boat with everyone.

The boat is a 2002-2510. Sorry pictures are out of order.

When getting my boat ready for spring I noticed cracks in the bilge area. I don't know why they showed up but can make some educated guesses, maybe some of you guys can tell me your thoughts.
Eric at Parker thought they were gelcoat cracks caused by flexing over the years and nothing structural he answered all my questions and was very nice and sent me some gelcoat after my repair was made.

I have a friend of mine who is an engineer by trade but has worked for a few boat builders when he was young. His hobby is repairing boats and has done everything from transoms to stringers and decks. I had him come over and take a look. He didn't want to just grind down the gelcoat and re gelcoat he wanted to repair it.

We ground the area to the wood which was slightly damp which we dried out before repairs were made. We actually drilled three holes in the transom from the outside to make sure there was no water intrusion, everything was dry. There was an area around the drain plug where the wood was not in contact with the transom. The void was about 3/4" to 1" up the transom and about 3/8" away from the transom we filled this with thickened resin then applied two types of glass alternating the layers. We put a total of ten layers on the area. I don't have a pick but we drilled the drain plug out later and the area will be gel-coated later this summer.

Again this is not a thread bashing our boats but someone else out there could have this issue and should have it repaired. My friend has been to the Parker plant and told me Parker has one of the best layups out their.

Anthony

 

[Parker23]

They do that void for a reason, your buddy should know why.

 

[susqking]

They do that void for a reason, your buddy should know why.

This is what Eric told me, what is your reason?

We installed the transom board with an adhesive and clamp the board to the transom until the adhesive is cured. It is not unusual for the adhesive not to be in contact with the area at the very bottom of the transom board as this is an area where there is virtual no stress as the bottom of the boat and transom intersecting create a very rigid area. It is possible the gel coat was applied liberally in this area which if a crack formed would allow water to soak into the fiberglass and hence the dampness that was found after grinding. The transom board is pressure treated and will not be affected by the moisture after drying.

I had excellent communication with Eric via email and I can't thank him enough! There was nothing stuctural with the cracks just like Eric said but needed repaired.

 

[pelagic2530]

They do that void for a reason, your buddy should know why.

i was under the impression that Parker did this so that any water intrusion from the plug would not soak into the transom, thereby soaking the wood and cotributing to decay. but i could be wrong, its happened before. :wink:

 

[Megabyte]

Would you say a poorly sealed drain plug started this problem ?

It could either be that, or too much torque on the garboard plug causing a stress crack.
That was exactly the same issue my boat had when I bought it.
Tri-State Marine in Deale repaired it 8 years ago and she has been fine ever since.

Thanks Anthony!

 

[big_tuna]

Same problem here. What tool did you use to sand\grind out the area? I was thinking of picking up a 2inch DA sander. Here's a picture so far, been using a dremel but it's pretty slow going

 

[afitzray]

I had some isolated fiberglass damage where I needed to carve away areas to get a good spot to patch. The dremel sanders just couldn’t remove enough material but I had good luck with the carving bits. They can dig in and really dig through a lot of material if you put too much pressure on it so be cautious until you get the hang of it. There’s a couple shapes but the attached pic is what I used the most and it worked well to have the flat angle where you could sort of lay it flat when needed versus a fully rounded bit.