Serious impact from another vessel caused extensive damage to the hull and toerail.
Collision Damage repairs
After a bad collision on the water, this vessel came to Mylor for extensive GRP repairs. She had been hit in three different places down her port side causing damage to the toerail, stachion posts, deck and hull.
The positioning of one of the areas of impact meant that part of the bulkhead had to be taken away to allow access to both sides of the repair.
Repairing the Damage
The team of GRP specialists had to remove all the fittings around the damaged area including the toe rail, stanchions and stanchion bases. To access the bolts of these fittings the headlining had to be removed on the inside of the cabin, as did the heads locker.
Once all these fittings were removed work began on cutting the damaged areas back to good fibre glas so there was a sound laminate to work from.
The first stage of the repair was to glass up from the inside using formers. (a temporary mould to create a base to work the glass fibres into) Once this layer was complete the fibreglass layers were built up on the outside to give strength and stiffness back to the hull and deck laminate.
The deck and hull were repaired as one piece although when originally built they would have been made separately and joined together.
The damaged area ready for the gel coat application.
Once all of the laminate had cured it was ground back to just below the surrounding gel coat surface in preparation for applying the new gel coat to finish. The new gel coat was colour matched to the original gel coat so the repair would not be visible once complete. Colour matching gel coat can take up to two days of testing, mixing up small amounts, applying and allowing to go off before completing the whole area.
The deck was repainted to match the surrounding deck areas and the new toe rail, stanchions and stanchion bases were fitted. Inside the cabin, the lockers and headlining were re-instated.
The repaired area is no different to the rest of the hull and no trace of the repair is noticeable.
The repair ro the port side of the vessel is so well done that it is impossible to tell that there has ever been any damage suffered and the integrity of the hull has not been affected by the collision. The resale value of the vessel will not be affected as the damage has been professionally repaired and the insurance company, surveyor and customer were pleased with the outcome.
