Bottom crack repair
I noticed a small crack in the paint on the bottom of the boat between the saildrive and the rudder. The Scanmar hulls were made of two molds glued together, usually mostly from the inside. The crack appears where the two parts were joined together. I didn't take a picture unfortunately, but it looked like it was just a crack in the bottom paint.
I've seen this symptom on several Scanmars and the issue is usually not serious, more of a cosmetic one. But as I was already working with fiberglass on the transom, I decided to fix it properly and reinforce it.
I sanded down the bottom paint and gelcoat around 10-10cm in the area, exposing the crack. It seemed that where the two halves of the hull were connected, some kind of filler material was used from the outside. This material started disintegrating, making voids and thus, the crack appeared.
I carved out some of the filler material with a dremel tool, then filled it with thickened epoxy. After it cured, I laid 4 layers of 300g woven fiberglass cloth on it. Finished with 3 layers of 407 fairing compound. It also got two layers of unthickened epoxy as a barrier coat.
Next step is a two part epoxy paint and anti-fouling. But it has to wait as we're planning to do it on the whole bottom, not just this area.
