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On the starboard side of my conquest about 12 inches from the stern to about 30 inches or so forward and down about 12 inches from the gunwale, my princess separated the outer skin from the foam. I am confident about making the repair but conflicted about the bonding agent. Do I use epoxy, vinylester or polyester resin? I would like to use epoxy because of the item’s great bonding characteristic but I am not sure if it is reactive to the foam core. I don’t want to dump anything in between the boat’s outer skin and foam that will eat the foam. Any opinion? Thanks.

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I had a similar problem and used fiberglass resin. I outlined the dead sound area to get a picture of the void. I drilled a minimal amount of holes which sstill seemed like alot, I mostly wanted to see the resin when squirted in one hole, come out of another. To squirt the mixture in the hole, I purchased a few squeeze bottles from local hobby store (Hobby Lobby). You can actually easily reuse the same bottle after mixture cures. Once I got the area filled, I would immediatley put tape over the holes (lowest holes)so the mixture did not run out until I was ready to start the squeezing, dispersing and clamping. that made it a little easier to work it into the voids. At the end before the final clamping I gently squeezed the excess to the few holes remaining open(no tape).
The other handy tool I founf was at Harbor Frieght, they have for a few dollars these very large vise grip style clamps, http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf...mber=39535 They came in a pack of three but greatly help clamp the deep area.
Sorry to get long in the tooth, I just thought I might share one or two things that helped me.

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Thanks. Your experience gives confidence. Now, did the repair hold? I mean did the ‘whaler’ tap sound return? I don’t think I can use clamps. I was planning to use a glass suction handle to pull the side out just a little to make sure the resin flows. But I cannot clamp. I was planning on ¼” holes on about 4” centers. What do you think?

Nice dog. Mine's 'yellow'

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The hole sizes are mostly dependant on what size you tip is that will be insert and resin/ epoxy injected. You want it to fit snug without having to apply to much press as if you do it will be almost impossible to inject the resin/ epoxy as the tip will be pressed against the foam.
If clamps aren't an option you could get a few cheap ratchet straps and connect them together until they will loop around the boat (port over to starboard, underneath hull and back around to port). I did something similar to that on some loose fiberglass on the hull. It worked great.
http://s355.photobucket.com/albums/r4...2_3264.jpg
If you notice I used a flat stick/ board to distribute the clamping pressure, the vertical stick was to help the strap actually apply pressure. To date it has still held but unfortunately it really hasn't been long enough for a fair judgment (4 months) but I have no real fear that it will fail.
Yes the solid knock sound was back instead of the dull thud.
You also don’t necessarily have to do the entire area at once, wherever the resin stops will be the next batch starting point.
On proximity of hole location, I think I did something like 3-4 inches at each end and closer to 4-5 in the central area of repair. I placed a hole high on the area to be bonded and another low to the left and/or right of above hole. I squirted in the bottom until it came out of the top or at least when pressure was applied it would come out of the top. Just be ready to catch a fair amount of resin as it is squeezed out. You may want tape off with plastic area below repair then it wouldn’t be that big of an issue.
If you can’t get the resin into an area and are getting close to end of workability of resin, don’t worry clamp it let it dry then come back do a sound test or press in a little to see if it depresses. It might take of itself; it will be hard to get resin in every little void.
I’ll tell Odin (the lab) you said hi. Labs are definitely my favorite K-9. My previous lab was a 12 year old Black stubborn goober, Odin is in a close race to take the goober title.

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thanks . . . . . your guidance help to get me to think in other directions. first, i was planning to do the 'whole' thing. intimidating to say the least. now, after your post, i will do it in two sections. much more managable psychowise. second, the ratchet clamp thing . . . . i liked that a lot. i can definately clamp the area using those items. thanks!!!!!

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ps . . . . no matter how bad a lab is; they are always good . . .

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I think slow set epoxy would be a good choice, as epoxy is basically a glue, and as far as i know doesn`t have a bad reaction to the foam used in Whalers, and would give you plenty of time to do the repair and clamp it before the epoxy kicks off.


Dogs drool, cats rule. LOL