crack!

my '06 superjet has a crack almost 18 inches long. i'd greatly appreciate any advice on how to fix this.
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the second pic is from the inside of the hull.
 

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butti

lone wolf
Location
F-XTC
my '06 superjet has a crack almost 18 inches long. i'd greatly appreciate any advice on how to fix this.
Code:
the second pic is from the inside of the hull.



i saw another 06 with the exact same damage.the ski was just a few months old and it was the guys first ski.he hadnt done so much as a nose stab with it.we repaired it from the inside and renforced with carbon fiber
 

Frosty

New York Crew
Location
Western New York
yeah, Newman's (now Proformance1's) 2005 SJ cracked at the bulkhead on the bottom of the ski... within the 1st month or so of riding it. After comparing his '05 to my '01 SJ we noticed that the hull was much thinner than my '01. He reinforced the S##t out of it and it's been good since.

you will want to reinforce the side of that before it gets any worse. Go to the tech section, i think there are a few threads on doing this process.
 

Crab

thanks darin...noswad!
Location
Seattle
Mine had similar damage from racing and collisions, I reinforced and added tubbies to the outside to add additional support, as well as for surf.
 
Here's how I fixed a very similar crack on my '93 SN, and IIRC the RN hulls are all SMC as well...

- on the outside, grind/sand down to the crack on a taper on both sides of the line...so if you were to look down the crack it would be a gentle V. This will give you surface area to adhere to, and let you build up more layers right at the crack.

- use only epoxy resin, not the cheaper polyester resin.

- get some good fiberglass cloth, and slowly build up layers...a thin first strip right over the crack, and then wider as you build up to follow & fill in the shape of the V.

- remember to only use enough resin to fully wet the fiberglass cloth, more than that is adding weight and not adding strength.

- I did a light skim coat of epoxy resin as the final layer, so that I could fill and gently sand w/o exposing fiberglass cloth. Paint and your good to go.

- now reinforce on the inside as well, remember to roughen up the surface first for good adhesion. Apply a few layers...and reinforce the other side while you are at it!

This is what I did, and 3 years later it is still holding up strong....
 
thanks so much for all your input! i became extremely depressed when i found the crack but, thanks to you guys, i'm feeling better. the fiberglass guy told me he won't be using cloth b/c he wants the fiberglass to adhere to the curves where the cracks are. i'll post an after pic when i get it back
 
hmmm....what do you mean that he won't be using cloth? Does that mean he's planning on only using the "kitty hair" loose strand stuff or the pressed mat? If so, I wouldn't do that...as far as I know, that stuff is for building up thickness only (i.e, not the best for structural integrity). Trust me, I had to put cloth on the side of my hull up around the bend of the bottom bondline, and it was no problem. My crack was on the bottom hull side and up around the bondline curve. As long as you are only dealing with a bend in only one direction, then the cloth is the way to go. I'm curious to understand more of what he intends to do...

I also forgot to mention in my first post to drill out the ends of the cracks so that they can't spread further...
 
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i agree, if he is just going to fill in the crack with some kind of filler other than laying cloth, he had better re-enforce the inside with several layers of cloth. other wise its just going to crack again.
 
I'd get my ski back ASAP. If he isn't going to do it as described above, then it isn't going to be done right. Glass matt (kitty hair) will work for awhile, but it will not be near as strong as 12 or 17 oz biax cloth (1208 or 1708 kyntex). If he isn't using epoxy resin, then you WILL be re-doing it again soon. Anything other than epoxy will not provide a good, permanent bond. Even though boat glass guys do this for a living, they seem to know surprisingly little about what it takes to fix one of these properly. You honestly could have done it yourself for less than $100 and probably only 2 afternoons. I

If it is not too late, get it back and do it yourself the right way. You're going to have to do that anyway so you might as well do it before he clumps on his fix that you'll have to grind off or pry off later.
 
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