Advice needed on 18' fibreglass boat.

Can someone tell me what the deal is with this boat, I'm wondering what is behind these arrows I'm pointing out in the 1st pic, the rib things? Is it fibreglass or wood (I'm assuming fibreglass) and is it safe to drill a screw into?
Picture 2 is the boat so any advice at all welcome, I'm going to varnish the wood this week & fix the lid for the box in the middle & get some 2"x1" wood to make a floor for it (it's leaking a bit through a small hole at the back, nothing big though). I thought id forget about the hole till the winter seeing as she is only in the water a week or two & we didnt notice the hole till she was in the water.
Pic 1:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l265/ ... t_ribs.jpg
Pic 2:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l265/ ... 2/boat.jpg

Fished around the muglins catching loads of mackerel, couple of nice sized pollack & a nice starry smoothhound today which one of the lads caught. I thought it was a tope (due to my inexperience) but someone else said it was a smoothhound, which this pic confirmed it was a starry smoothhound [img]http://www.discount-fishing-tackle.com/sea-fish-large-images/smoothhoundblowup.jpg[/img]
It gave my mate a good slap in the mouth for reeling it in :lol:

EDIT: Another question, what does gilling mean when fishing? I see other people here saying they tried gilling etc I want to try something that doesn't result in loads of mackerel.

Hi Hydra,

They look like fiberglass ribs. If so they would be there to add strenght to the hull. Why do you want to drill through one of them?

I would advise agains't it.

Kev

Hi MAC

Thanks for the reply, advice taken, all I wanted to do was put a hook at the main rib at the front for holding a bag etc, I was going to do it last week till I gave the thing a knock & got a hollow sound, so I held off doing it.

I did have a feeling it was fibreglass but thanks for confirming it.

Cheers

If you want to put a hook in you can do so towards the top of the hull (just not on the supports) Just make sure you use some rubber seals to avoid any leaking.

Kev

Cheers, not sure what you mean by supports, can I put a hook in where I have the X in this pic?
[img]http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l265/hydra_02/boat1.jpg[/img]

Also, any suggestions on what I could improvise for a rod holder? Looking for something I can make on the cheap :lol: All suggestions no matter how ridiculous they sound are welcome :twisted:

I don't have a yes or no answer for you, but I have something you can check. Given that the picture appears to show the inside of the stem, on the outside, is there a ring mounted? If so, there is probably a wooden stem (the upward extension of the keel up the bow) glassed in and it should be able to take a hook.

I've seen similar setups that have a hardwood stem inside the fibreglass coating. If it's hardwood in there, best drill it carefully with a drill bit just slightly smaller (say 0.5mm-1mm smaller) than what you want to screw into it - to stop it splitting.

If drilling it, you don't want to go any deeper than is necessary, so measure off the screw you want to put in and then wrap a bit of insulating tape around the drill bit the same distance up. When you've drilled in as far as the tape, you know you're deep enough.....

And as someone already mentioned, make sure the hole is sealed. I'll often put silicone sealant into the hole ahead of the screw and then a bit around it once it's screwed in.

Thanks for the reply sandman, sorry I didnt reply sooner but I didnt have the motivation to reply, the boat is ****ed now, 2 of the lads took it out yesterday & sunk it in high waves & had to get rescued, the boat was recovered by the coastguard but there is a 5' hole in the side of it :cry:

ah well, could have been alot worse, the lads are safe so I suppose thats the main thing, they were stupid as f*%* to take it out in those waves though :roll:

5' is that 5 feet or 5 inches if its 5 inches it should be easily fixable with a good cosmetic outcome.

5feet is a lot more problematic! it might just be repairable though it will look like crap!

Unofrtunately thats 5 feet I'm talking about, here's a pic :cry: [img]http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l265/hydra_02/broken_boat.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l265/hydra_02/broken_boat2.jpg[/img]

Is that even worth fixing? Feckin clowns going out in the waves they went out in :roll:

that looks fixable enough although unless you are very careful it might not look too pretty after!

basically you have pulled the lip at the top of the moulding off the other crack comming off this is no problem.

if you can find a way of clamping the lip into position you have it beat, use a grinder (messy job use a face mask) to cut away ALL the damage around the hole and leave the edges of the hole sloping not square, it is probably better if you repair from the outside of the boat but this with give the worst cosmetic finsh then just layer it up chopped mat and resin, OVERLAPING onto the original. then a couple of large patches of chopped matt/resin in the inside and bobs your uncle! after that it is just a matter of how pretty you want it, rub the outside down smoothe with wet-dry paper start rough and go down to about 800grade using plenty of water and then either paint or attempt to regell coat painting is much easier!!!!

looking at it again i think if you are fairly "handy" it could turn out ok and not too expensive...hint by your resin by the litre if you can those wee kits sold at car repair shops can work out expensive.

then lock it up and dont let the lads at it again

ps gilling is the term used for fishing a redgill, or whatever lure or bait you wish to use on a flowing trace, dropping it to the bottom and retrieving it slowly up through the water to entice a take