What epoxy or filler would you use inside the starboard/stern compartment?

[TopherMichael]

I own a '99 Osprey 175 and looking to do a little pre-maintenance.

There are 2 compartments located at the stern (port and starboard sides). The starboard side compartment bottom has a couple of cracks and it appears the PO used some expand foam (can type). I am looking to fill a valley and coat any cracks and the exposed foam.

What would I use? Perhaps 105/205 mixture or G5?

[Capt. Bob]

I'd venture a guess that the foam you see wasn't placed by the PO but rather left over from the original factory assembly line build. Slop from when the foam flotation was added to the hull.

[RickK]

I guess I'm not sure what I'm looking at - I see the tube were everything is coming from console and you say "crack" is it leaking from outside? If not, if you want to clean it up, is it worth all the grinding you're going to have to do in a confined space to make it look better?

[TopherMichael]

I guess I'm not sure what I'm looking at - I see the tube where everything is coming from the console and you say "crack" is it leaking from outside? If not, if you want to clean it up, is it worth all the grinding you're going to have to do in a confined space to make it look better?

What you are looking at is the inside of the compartment, starboard side as you can see from the following photo




Nothing leaking to the outside, just the "epoxy" in the location where the point of the red arrow point to, has a valley that I would like to fill with something, to remove that slight valley. Right now if any water makes its way into the bottom of this compartment, it just stays. If you look directly across from the red arrow, you can see the tube where any water should be guided to.

I would also like to cover the exposed foam as I want to seal this area. I did order the white paint that you would use to repaint inside these areas, just not sure what to use for a filler.

[mshugg]

Are the cracks structural, or just spider cracks in the gel coat.  If structural, you’ll need to repair the underlying glass before you fill anything.  If it’s surface spider cracks, you can use a dreammel tool or an old fashioned church key to open up the cracks and fill with thickened epoxy, marine-tex  or polyester filler.  The preparation is far more important than your choice of material.  Since your painting, I’d go with marine-Tex, but prep is the key.

[TopherMichael]

I believe just spider cracks, but not 100% sure.

[Capt. Bob]

I believe just spider cracks, but not 100% sure.

I would tend to agree that they are just spider cracks. We've seen this many times. I have them inside my hull too.
Personally, it's not a big deal in a 21+ year old hull.

Good luck.

[RickK]

I would venture to say that in '99 that Genmar was not using "epoxy" in their lineups, more than likely still polyester. You will see stress cracks more in poly then in epoxy.