Cracks: Gelcoat? Deeper?

[SkiTundra]

Noticed 3 curved vertical cracks on our 211. Then noticed a crack along the 90 degree angle/seam near where lower white/grey meet running from about 3' from stern, around stern, to about 2' forward of stern. Neighbor said that the way the crack in the seam runs and not following the colors would lead him to believe it's delaminating at the seam and the curved cracks I'd originally noticed are stress from that. Cracks seem to small to me to be any deeper than Gelcoat. ??

??

[Bevan]

This will be interesting

[markj]

Ouch! Hope they fix you up. That's not cool. That's bad for the brand...

[pzthk6]

99.99% of all cracks that you see on most any boat are just in the gel coat. In the simpliest form gel is just colored resin, which by nature has very little structural strength. They also take the most beating and stress being on the exterior exposed surface.
I would disagree with your neighbor that believes the cracks go through to the laminate. Take it to a gel shop, and they will grind out the cracks and most likely just need to do a gel patch.

[Mikeski]

Send the pix to the factory customer service, looks to me like it's gonna need some glass and gel work

[SkiTundra]

Thanks everyone. I took a feeler gauge over today and was able to get one of the thinner ones (0.05mm IIRC) in about 1/16" to 1/8" in a couple of places but most of the crack was too narrow.

[SkiTundra]

A couple of questions:

Given where these cracks are, what is the likely cause? Anything structural to be concerned about or are these pretty normal? Most I've seen have been near some type of opening in the structure like a bolt hole so the location of these concerns me.

These are all below the waterline. Assuming these are all only in the gelcoat, which is what it appears, how easy would it be for someone to mess up the repair? How would you know if the repair were not done correctly? What are potential issues from a screwed up repair?

Thanks,

[swc5150]

I think your boat is far too new for these cracks to be normal. I understand your feelings regarding your local CC dealership, but I'd think these cracks need to be investigated by CC. For a glass repair shop, it can all be repaired with somewhat ease, but you have to wonder why they're there in the first place.

[SkiTundra]

Thanks swc5150. Any thoughts on what could have caused them?

[swc5150]

I'd hate to speculate, but gel coat is a tricky thing, and I'm certainly no expert. When applied too thin, it can crack. When applied to thick, it can become brittle and prone to cracking. I'll give my buddy a call, who owns our CC dealership and see what his thoughts are. If you end up needing warranty work, Three Lakes, WI would be a haul for you, but service from Water Craft Sales would be worth the trip.

[DealsGapCobra]

Those are some pretty wide cracks! My guess is that they are just in the gel coat but have not seen them that wide before.

[SkiTundra]

They're pretty wide, though not sure if they're as wide as you think. I was pretty close on some of those shots.

[DealsGapCobra]

I am glad to hear that. My old boat (Century CTS) had some hairline cracks in the gel coat that appeared after about 12 years. They never caused a problem (I had the boat for 20 years) but were as annoying as can be as I did everything I could to keep that boat looking new.

Get it checked out and please let us know what they find.

[SkiTundra]

OP Update. Marinemax (Rogers) did the repairs and, externally anyway, all looks good. Difficult to tell where the patches are.