GRP/ Gel Coat Repairs
Enjoy Innovative Repair Techniques to Return Your Beautiful Vessel to Its Former Glory
As a boat owner, you carry out regular maintenance on your vessel to keep it in good working order. But even with the best of care, your boat or yacht can be prone to damage and will need repair at some point. Almost everyone who owns a boat, even if it is very small, has suffered some sort of damage to their Gel Coat.
BowToStern offers Gel coat repairs in Southampton, Hampshire, providing a professional and high-quality Gel coat repair service at realistic prices. This repair can either be an emergency patch to prevent further damage from getting worse or a cosmetic repair to return the boat to its original condition.
We use innovative repair techniques to return your beautiful vessel to its former glory, suitable for the harshest marine environments. We will work with you to ensure that we are working towards the same result.
A Little About Gel Coat
GRP/Gel coat is a form of resin which is applied to the surface of your boat in layers and when cured forms a hard, non-porous flexible finish. It has excellent impact resistance and in most cases can tolerate long term immersion in water.
Your Gel coat is vital to the performance of your boat and with proper care, it can make your boat look good for years to come.
When your gel coat becomes scratched and gouged, it can start to look really bad and parts of the boat might even start to show because of the damage underneath the surface. You also run the risk of being exposed to harmful UV rays that cause blistering on your gel coat when it’s damaged.
BowToStern’s repair service is designed to expertly fix these types of damage, giving your hull life back at a low cost. We provide service throughout Southampton, Hampshire, along the South Coast including Southampton, Hamble, Poole, Weymouth, Portsmouth, Gosport, Lymington, Hythe and the surrounding areas..
Get a free BowToStern GRP/Gel Coat repairs quote now.
Call 07967 785590 or 01489 784613
or email [email protected]
Why Should You Get A GRP/Gel Coat Repair Done?
Wear and Tear
Boat owners who live aboard their craft are well aware of the wear and tear that the boat takes. While you can scrub out your boat when you use it, wear of the fibreglass surface is inevitable. Eventually, this can lead to cracking on your boat and other things that should be attended to immediately.
If you have rock chips, cracks or waviness in your gel coat, a full fibreglass repair with another layer of gel coat can be done to restore the surface. All too easily ignored, these imperfections can catch water and dirt and cause further damage to your hull, reducing the lifespan of your boat greatly. A new coat of gel coat on top will ensure that no debris or filth gets stuck in it and will essentially give a fresh start to the life of your boat.
Radial, thermal and linear cracks
Radial cracks are like spiderwebs and generally occur on holes that have been welded shut before being filled.
Thermal Cracks occur when part of the boat is left in the sun and warms up, which causes a temperature change in the rest of the boat. This can be prevented by putting a cover over any unused areas or moving it into the shade. If this has already occurred, there may be other filler damage so you should arrange for this to be repaired at the same time.
Linear cracks are divided into two categories: primary and secondary.
- A primary linear crack develops in the gel coat layer itself. These cracks tend to start in areas of higher stress, such as transition zones or simply at a point where there is a higher concentration of gel coat, but they may also occur randomly.
- Secondary linear cracks develop from the primary crack over a period of time due to flexing in these weak points.
Blistering
Gel coat is susceptible to blistering. A blister happens when the gel coat or resins begin to break down. Small cracks and stress raisers in your hull will cause the bubbles that appear in the blister.
This is different from a blister that you have on your hand, which is caused by friction. Boat blisters, typically formed in high traffic areas, are caused by the sun’s ultraviolet rays hitting your boat and causing oxidation and degradation.
Keep your boat looking its best with professionally done repairs. With servicing available throughout Hampshire, BowToStern has extensive experience with GRP/gel coat repairs.
Why Choose Bow To Stern Yacht Services?
Our team provides one of the finest GRP boat repairs in Southampton, Hampshire. BowToStern Services has been offering expert repairs to yachts, dinghies and small boats for over 23 years. Our fully equipped workshop enables us to quickly carry out tests and repairs to your hull, deck, rigging and engine compartment.
We have a team that is always up for a challenge and our services are all fully guaranteed. Furthermore, we can offer you a repair service that provides you with 100% satisfaction. With our expert GRP/gel coat repair in place, your boat will look as good as new!
Our Gel Coat Repair Process
Our gel coat repair process has been specially developed over many years to ensure that we can produce the quality of finish and strength to help repair your gel coat surface.
Our gel coat repair begins with identifying the boat finish of your vessel by our experienced technicians. This will help us to choose the most suitable product for the repair.
The surface preparation step includes hull cleaning, stressing and surface marking to ensure we are able to produce high quality, smooth finish with no sanding marks.
Our surface preparation process will ensure that the area being repaired is clean and free of any contaminants. The purpose of this is to help avoid future damage to your gel coat and have as smooth a repair process as possible.
The surface preparation is carried out by our expert staff using a combination of hand tools and power tools. This professional approach, used by our team, will result in minimal disruption to your boat repair.
We tape off the area to be repaired with high-quality scotch tape and then clean the area. The aim of this is to remove any dirt or grease that may prevent the gel coat repair from bonding well.
In the repair process, resin and an epoxy-based filler are applied to the gouge or scratch. The area is then sanded and cleaned with acetone. Next, we use a special catalyst that converts the resin into gel coat to match the surrounding area and create a smooth surface for the final coat. We finish by sanding, polishing and repainting.
Our unique colour matched gel coat repairs enable us to accurately match colours on both the exterior of your yacht or powerboat and the interior. With the boat manufacturer’s paint code, we will match the correct colour to your gel coat repair.
Contact Us
Our repairs involve using high-quality resins, gels and hardeners which means that we can repair cracks up to 2mm wide.
We offer a year guarantee on all our repairs. Call us today on 7967 785590 or 01489 784613 send an email to [email protected] to get a repair quote or to discuss your repair or hull damage issues.