Circular sawed through my hull!!! HELP! (please...)

OK, here's my bonehead situation. I'm replacing the floor in my 19' BR and it's going along well. I'm cutting the old floor out leaving a 1-2" rim around the edge to attach the new floor to. As I get near the driver's seat area the boat begins to narrow. So i keep following about 2" from the edge with my saw. I have the saw blade set to just more than 1/2" so I'm not worrying about the hull - BAD MOVE.

Turns out, in that area there is no wood under the fiberglass near the wall. It is very thick fiberglass hull with glassed on the inside to blend it into the fiberglass covered wood section. Next thing I know, I have about a 1" slot through my hull! Could have been worse, I guess - at least I caught it before pushing the circular saw any further.

How do i fix this small hole? My boat is 20 yrs. old so i don't want to spend a ton to get the outside re-done or anything. I'm just looking to get it patched and water tight. Can I just fill the spot with 3M 5200 on it from inside and make sure it is flush with the ouside of the hull? Or, how else to fix it? Better to do it now (northeast, so 50 deg. highs and 30 deg low these days) or wait until spring when the temps are higher?

Thanks. I was ALL DONE with the restoration work i'm doing until I take it out of winter storage! Now this.

Re: Circular sawed through my hull!!! HELP! (please...)

I would take a grinder to the inside and concave the saw cut so you can lay some new glass then fill the outside with epoxy filler and call it done... please don't use 5200 (caulking) it will deteriorate and leak...

Re: Circular sawed through my hull!!! HELP! (please...)

It's not a big deal, you're re-glassing the inside already, just sand it down a little more in that area and put some extra glass there. On the out side just use the same stuff, sand it down some, glass it and then sand it smooth, if you don't care about the looks just paint it with gel coat or something else. If you want it to look good, use gel coat and then sand and buff it.

Re: Circular sawed through my hull!!! HELP! (please...)

No worries, it is not a big deal.
They do sell cold weather epoxy, but I'd wait until spring and buy the regular stuff since you will need it anyway.
Good Luck!

Re: Circular sawed through my hull!!! HELP! (please...)

you're good, worse things could happen, just lay in some glass there with epoxy.

What color is your hull? The reason I ask is... you can buy expoxy pigment that can *almost* match your hull color. Then pigment the first little cup of epoxy that goes down into the hull first, no one will ever notice it.

Good luck in the spring.

Re: Circular sawed through my hull!!! HELP! (please...)

1 inch? How I wish I was that lucky, how about more than 24 inches, nice slit through......:'(

Re: Circular sawed through my hull!!! HELP! (please...)

Offwhite hull, so should be fairly easy to match close enough.

lp142, i have to check some spots closely - I only KNOW about the 1" slit! Actually, i think that's it - I guess i was lucky. Glad to hear it's not the end of the world like it seemed when I saw the red color of the trailer through the boat hull!!!!!! Scary sight.

Re: Circular sawed through my hull!!! HELP! (please...)

lp142 what did you do to repair that!

Re: Circular sawed through my hull!!! HELP! (please...)

Another old thread of mine... the outcome is that again i followed the advice here and fixed the hull quite easily (epoxy resin and glass strips) while I was doing the other floor/stringer work. It had me in a panic at first, but in the big scheme of things it turned out to be a minor diversion.

Thanks again for the help!

Re: Circular sawed through my hull!!! HELP! (please...)

I have done it myself. It is part of my apprenticeship process, grinding or cutting through the hull. Fortunately it is an easy fix, just as described in the previous posts.

Have a great day,

Rob.