surface cracks? but...they're smooth to touch

[hpdixon3]

Hey, I noticed a barely visible line on the hull. Totally smooth to touch. Can anyone shed some light on this?

[swatguy]

It's commonly referred to as a stress crack . Pretty common about this time on your era boat. Over the years gelcoat is curing and getting harder. At some point a little stress/tweak/maybe the same place you strap to a trailer and leave strapped starts to flex a little and it crawls the gelcoat ever so slightly. In 99% of most cases it's purley cosmetic and nothing to worry about structurally. Any good gelcoat guy can fix it for you and you won't even be able to tell. Bad part is that crack looks very long and gelcoat labor isn't cheap. First guess of just the pic would put that at around 700-1k around my neck of the woods.

[swatguy]

Little of both. Hard to say, but if you did hit a nice bump and boat bounced up and down off the bunks that could have caused it. Again tho,stress cracks are somewhat common place. Even some times on brand new boats from the factory. No rhyme or reason. Usually the most common places are at the bow tower feet and the swim deck braces followed up by the rub rail.

[xrichard]

The good news is stuff like that is a DIY project--technically easy, just a lot of labor. Spectrum made kits that match your gel perfectly--but they've stopped so you should order some old stock while you can (nautiqueparts still has them last time I looked a few months ago). Grant put up a DIY thread on wakeworld--it's worth checking out. For what you have, you'll need to grind out the cracks, fill them with gel, sand and buff. Doing a good job takes a lot of time, but very little skill unless there's a color match issue.

[Quinner]

What is the white pasty looking material which appears to not be evenly applied below the crack?? Cracks are not necessarily normal wear, and could be an indication of another issue.

[NautiqueJeff]

I was wondering that too. Is it possible that there has been a repair in this area before?

[swatguy]

I believe that's just water with the gelt reflecting through from camera angle. Just what it looks like to me. I Had to look at the
pic for a bit. Could be wrong thogh. If it's not just water then there is something way more going on

[NautiqueJeff]

Ok, glad to hear that! While cracks like that can appear, I don't know that I would consider them to be expected on an '02. I would say that something must have happened to start this process.

[Woody_tobius_jr]

We get to -40 up here and my boat is in an unheated shop, my gel coat has 0 issues. So I don't think temperatures will be your issue.


Sent from my iPad

[NautiqueJeff]

Couple of guesses on those two cracks.

1. The installer didn't countersink the holes. Pretty much anytime that's not done, cracks will appear.

or

2. Something hit the pitot tube with enough force to crack the gel (although I don't see how that could happen since it should have either flipped the tube up or broken it off).