Fixing some minor hull damage

Hi all, I'm seeking recommendations on repairing a ding on one of my hulls on my recently purchased H18 (photo below). As luck would have it, one of my worn trailer bunks tore into the hull as I was loading the boat the other day. Part of the damage was my fault as I recklessly muscled the boat onto the trailer, but I can see now the bunk padding is badly worn and needs to be replaced. But first the hull - How would you go about fixing this relatively small (1.5") ding? Should I just sand, clean and paint in some gel coat by hand or should I be using something else (e.g., epoxy filler)? Thank you.

I've had excellent results with small dings like this on white hulls using Marine Tex. It does tend to turn slightly yellow over time though. Google it and you'll find some tricks for getting a smooth finish with Marine Tex by using packing tape. Good luck.

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Southwest Hobie Island Club
http://www.facebook.com/southwesthic

Dings like this are easy to repair. I would not use Marine-Tex. It's "white" is grayer than the white gelcoat and it has no inherent strength of it's own, other than as an adhesive.

You'll need a disc sander, a few scraps of fiberglass cloth, polyester resin and some white gelcoat to fix this properly.

The process is similar to the "This Old Hobie - Blind Hole Repair" article in the May/June '08 HOTLINE:http://www.hobiecat.com/hobieclass/eHCA_Hotline05-06_2008.pdf

I never heard of using fiberglass cloth for a gelcoat ding.

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Southwest Hobie Island Club
http://www.facebook.com/southwesthic

I'm pretty sure Matt is suggesting the use of the cloth to chop up into loose fibers... mix into the resin for strength. Just resin can pop out or crack more easily. The fibers hold it together.

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

It's hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like the damage goes through the outer layers of cloth and has maybe compressed the foam a bit. I guarantee the damage is much larger than the little gel coat ding on the surface. All the damaged material needs to be removed, then you can assess whether to put in a couple of small cloth patches or just fill it with chopped fiber / resin.

After you've done the repair / fill, sand smooth and shoot /brush the area with new gel.

Thanks everybody.