Question about the centerboard
Hello fellow sailors!For the past several weeks, I have been working on the centerboard of my Scot (#3211). Over the years it has developed some unbelievable gouges and scratches on the leading edge, the bottom and the back edge (no idea how the back edge could be marred but it is). So, it's been on saw horses, sanded down and all the gouges have been filled with MarineTex; the bottom curves rebuilt with MarineTex as well. There were also some nasty grooves up by the rollers apparently from all the years of raising and lowering. Those have been filled in. It's now sanded down with 1200 grit. There were some large areas of exposed fiberglass where the gelcoat wore off the board over the last 30+ years as well. I put a micro thin layer of MarineTex over these patches but after sanding, a some fiberglass patches still exist.Here's the question: At this point, should I spray a marine primer over the board then follow up with a marine high gloss paint or just reattach the board as is without any primer with the marinetex and fiberglass areas still exposed? The boat is dry sailed and only in the water while racing.Thanks for any guidance!JoeLux
sawyerspadre
Sun, 12/18/2011 - 11:02
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In general, I think polyester
In general, I think polyester resin and gelcoat are the most compatible repair materials, in terms of adhesion and hardness. Marine tex and epoxy are easy to work with. I think the best approach over Marine-tex would be to paint with a good epoxy paint. I would probably only paint the areas where you repaired, which is often just the tip.Phil