Urgent repair or okay for now

[sebastien18]

Complete newbie here. I'm so glad I found this forum!

I just bought a 26D and upon further inspection I found a few dings that need attention. My question is how urgently I need to repair one in particular. It sits either below the water line or very close to it and goes down to the fiberglass. It looks like a previous repair was made and some of the repair is cracking/flaking off. Is this something that I would need to repair before putting it in the water for a day. The reason I ask is that the PO is going to teach us how to sail (like I said, I'm a complete newbie at sailing). If we put it in the water for a day will we risk severe damage?

Here's a link to the pic. https://goo.gl/photos/4nF9dc4Yaw5n8vXD9

Thanks for your help!

-Wes

[kmclemore]

Yeah, sorry, but my vote is to repair this one before you put it in the water. The reason is that it's down into the fibers, and below the water line, so the first time you put it in the water it's going to begin saturating the inner layers of fiberglass and it will be pretty tough to get that dried out in order to fix it later. So... yeah... fix that one now.

[kmclemore]

Having said that... second thought... you could possibly patch over it with some strong waterproof tape for the run with the owner, then fix it later. But you definitely don't want water getting in there.

[sailboatmike]

Grind it back and fix it before sailing, you dont want water to get into the actual glass, it should only take a couple of hours, grind it back, sand around it and paint with flowcoat.

Have a look at "boatworks today" on Youtube, sensational for getting to know how to fix things on your boat

[sebastien18]

Thanks for the quick replies and the youtube suggestion! I'll look into getting it fixed before we take her out.