All you need to know about doing your own Fibreglass Repairs

11:33 PM Mon 1 Mar 2010 GMT

'Fibreglass repairing - not as difficult as we thought' .

Doing your own fibreglassing has in the past an exercise that many an otherwise handy yacht owner has shied away from.

However, a new publication just might contain all you need to know to carry out a repair to that latest fibreglass damage on your boat, instead of calling in the professionals.

The cost of the book may be recoverable hundreds of times over if you have the time, the inclination and the bravery to have a go.

Fiberglass Boat Repairs Illustrated, available at some chandleries and bookstores but also online this month, is a comprehensive guide to making repairs to a fibreglass boat and how to finish and paint those repairs.

Written by Roger Marshall, winner of numerous awards for marine technical and magazine writing and author of 14 nautical books, the nine chapters of Fiberglass Boat Repairs Illustrated include:

Fiberglass Boat Repairs Illustrated - all you need to know - .. .

1. How a fibreglass boat is built, identifying hull damage
2. materials, tools and basic techniques; gelcoat restoration;
3. Making minor repairs
4. Making major repairs
5. Hull, keel and rudder fairing
6. Identifying and making osmosis repairs and
7. Finishing and painting a repair job.

Then there is an appendix on building a temporary Shrink WrapT shed in which to do boat repair work year-round.

With more than 200 pictures and drawings, the book shows repair projects as done by the author and other professional and amateur boat builders, from simply polishing the gelcoat or repairing a ding in the paint work, to much larger projects such as making a transom well guard to keep water from flooding over the transom.

The most ambitious project is a complete hull and keel reconstruction on a boat that went aground and was seriously damaged.

Fiberglass Boat Repairs Illustrated is published by International Marine/McGraw-Hill. It's a paperback of some 192 pages, and it sells for just US $24.95 - not bad if it will save you the cost of those expensive professionals.

To purchase it online, click here .

by Sail-World Cruising