Dockmate crushed his hull, best advice for repair? Pics...

Thanks for all who chimed in!

I will see if I can document the repair as he moves along with it. I would love to hear personal reports of any repairs made with the pewter hull, good or bad...
 
The positive is the white stripe is part of the area. So it will hide part of the repair. A good fiberglass guy can match colored hulls. A bad one is just that. Bad one. Worth waiting for a good one. They will reinforce the hull and it will be most likely the thickest part of the hull. The key will be waxing it consistently.
 
Pewter isn't nearly as hard to get a decent match with.......certainly not like the blue that turns purple in about 4 years. Your friends problem is going to be that it doesn't look as though he has cared for his hull very well and I think I see a good bit of oxidation in the 2nd photo you posted. At the least, he's probably going to have to spend the money to bring the hull back by having it wet sanded and buffed. Even then, the repaired area with new gelcoat is probably going to have a more vivid color that the original gelcoat on the rest of the boat.
 
Many people have had minor scratches repaired on pewter, and the color match is usually good on newer hulls, but depends upon how oxidized the hull is and how the gelcoat was handled for spraying. But once again, this repair is not a "touch up". The fiberglass repair guy is going to have to grind away the gelcoat and fiberglass out to 12-15" of the fracture, both inside and out, then rebuild the substraight. He won't know how wide or tall the fracture is until the damaged fiberglass underneath the gelcoat is removed. The gelcoat match will depend upon how thick he shoots the gelcoat, the color of the gelcoat (order from Sea Ray by HIN#) and how oxidized the area around the repair is.

The other factor you must remember is that from here on the owner of this boat will have new gelcoat on an area roughly 24": x18" on the side of his boat, in the middle of 7 year old gelcoat. Unless he starts maintaining the hull with wax 2-3 times a year and keeps the oxidation off the hull, he will see the repair as soon as the old gelcoat oxidizes again, assuming he cleans the hull up when the repair is made..........and this isn't a mismatch in color, but a failure to maintain the hull.
 
I'm going to guess that a section of that will have to be cut out square and then a new piece put in. Then fill. It is a big job and should be left to the professionals. Look for a boat yard that does engine replacements where they have to cut the fiberglass to get engine swaps complete. They have fiberglass people that will make it like it never happened.
 
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