Cracks at bow tie?

[Cheapie408]

Was winching the boat out of the water and noticed the gelcoat is cracking away at this area.

I have a feeling my trailer isn't properly set up. All my past boat, I'm able to winch the tow hook till it touches the roller not this one. Patch the gelcoat and move on with my life?

 

[Navigator]

Not sure if I follow you right but you winch till the boat touches the roller.....it is what it is. Move the roller if able and if it needs to go up or down. As far as the gelcoat goes its it's own layer and a thin one at that. A first guess would be that the pressure from the bow eye being pulled/winched is causing the gelcoat only to give way under the stress. With that being said I would not expect that the fiberglass under it is being torn out. The bow eye is usually a U bolt with associated threads and they usually have a backing plate and nut/washer on the inside. You should be able depending on the boat to inspect it from the inside. If that checks out I would fix the gelcoat and be done with it.

 

[Cheapie408]

I'll crawl in there tomorrow and get it checked out.

I'll moving the winch and roller lower to meet the hook.

 

[tomc585]

Looks like there's movement in the eye causing gel failure. If properly rigged the winch shouldnt require much effort to pull the boat into place. This is not always the case because of what we have to work with. With a full roller trailer it should roll real easy. Bunks vary with different materials which create different levels of resistance in combination with bottom paint and require getting that trailer in the water a bit more.

 

[warthog5]

These are HEAVY boats....I've never winched to the roller....Not without help from the outboard. Now....With that said. That with the trailer at a proper depth so that the boat contacts it and does Not go sideways misaligning the boat with the trailer. To float a boat On....The trailer would need to be deeper, but that causes the problem of the boat going sideways.......So then you need Trailer side bunks to stop that.....The problem with that is...It's a PITA to wash the boat, as those side bunks are in the way.

Sounds like your retrieving this boat as a one man operation? Which is a PITA, but that may be your only choice, till you get a crew trained.


My routine:........Son stays on the boat, operating the boat......Noses up to the dock with the Bow.......I step off and he backs away from the dock......Never tying to the dock. I get the truck and trailer. Back trailer in deeper to get ALL bunks WET. Then pull forward to the proper depth of trailer for loading.
Whats the proper depth? You experiment till it loads easy, but has drag so boat doesn't go sideways.
Son drives boat on trailer and powers up till I can hook strap...Usually about 2 1/2ft from winch. While he is powering.......I'm winching till the Stem of the boat hits the roller.

All that done in 2min on the ramp.

 

[sydngoose]

What year is your hull again? It would never be wrong to go into your anchor locker, remove the bow eye, clean up that area. Then reseat w/ 4200 fast cure. But, with the gelcoat crack there, I would not want water to sneak in and intrude that lamination.
There are numerous ways to load a boat on a trailer: Wart suggested one technique. Like him, I would not use that bow eye to pull the entire weight of the rig onto the trailer/ bow stop.
Personally, I hand load all my boats: W/ my bigger boats, I need someone in the truck to back down while I hand crank. Like wart, I dunk the trailer so all 4 bunks are wet, then pull forward so the last 1/2 of my heavy load bearing bunks are submerged. I get the hull lined up perfectly, sneak off the bow, hook the bow strap to the bow eye. I crank. I motion w/ my hand for the driver to back down... I will have him back down twice maybe three times to securely load the boat on the trailer.

 

[Cheapie408]

I have an 05 hull with 300 hours. It depends on where I'm fishing, I sometime power it up and sometime I just retreive it by hand. The boat is actually sitting on a trailer meant for a 22-24ft boat that was adapted to fit this boat by its previous owner so I have an extra long tongue which affords me to get the trailer pretty low into the water.

So pop out the eye, patch the gel coat, 4200 on the holes... sounds like an extra day of work.

 

[warthog5]

When you reassemble the eye.....I'd add a metal backing plate. Did this to mine. Made a tab to secure the tag end of anchor line to.

 

[Cheapie408]

went to inspect and it looks like it's a thin chip on the gelcoat. no glass is exposing yet. Going to dap some new gelcoat in when I patch the pulpit.

 

[Key Largo]

went to inspect and it looks like it's a thin chip on the gelcoat. no glass is exposing yet. Going to dap some new gelcoat in when I patch the pulpit.

I replaced all 3 of my bow and Stern rings after the port ring snapped due to corrosion when pulling on it at a 45 degree angle, it was 14 years old.

 

[Cheapie408]

I replaced all 3 of my bow and Stern rings after the port ring snapped due to corrosion when pulling on it at a 45 degree angle, it was 14 years old.

That sounds pretty crappy. My 25 year old Seaswirl had zero corrisions on those parts mention and it just sits outdoor all its life.

 

[Key Largo]

That sounds pretty crappy. My 25 year old Seaswirl had zero corrisions on those parts mention and it just sits outdoor all its life.

The corrosion is not visible. The repair shop in Key Largo said it is common.

 

[jimjybe]

It appears to me that the bow eye has hit something that possibly forced it inward? Fiberglass rolled in the bow is very strong! I have winched mine forward on the trailer on level ground, usually try to float it on as much as possible, my ramp at the house is steep and has to be pulled upwards to load. Adjust the bracket so that the eye is as close to the bottom of the stop as possible. You can have a piece of heavy SS made to cover the damage area and epoxy in place under the U bolt.