: 1. Sand the affected area. You don't need to go down to the bare wood, but
: you do need to sand off varnish/paint and any "bad glass" (i.e.
: where there are white spots and other signs of brokenness.) Where the
: glass is fine, don't sand it off. Don't go wild, but you do want the area
: you're going to re-glass to be a bit larger than the actual spot that
: needs to be fixing.
: 2. Patch with glass/resin. Same technique as when you glassed it originally.
: Make sure that the glass you use for the patch is a bit larger (2 or 3 or
: 4 inches?) than the problem area. Apply fill coats.
: 3. Sand (after the epoxy is cured, of course). The reason you made the patch
: bigger than the problem is so that you can sand off the edges to feather
: it smooth. Apply another fill coat if you need to (i.e. if you've sanded
: into the weave where the new glass overlaps the old glass.)
: 5. Varnish (or repaint). For best results, you'll probably want to refinish
: the whole hull. You don't need to do this right away.. and it would be a
: good idea to let the epoxy cure fully. So... patch now... let it cure all
: winter, then in the spring, WASH OFF THE BLUSH and refinish the boats.

: Don't stress too much about making it look absolutely *perfect* because
: a) it won't show when you're paddling anyway
: b) you're just going to scratch & bang up that area again as you continue
: to use your boats.

: Julie Kanarr

The Rev. Julie has it right. Just work on the worst spots, where the glass is stressed creating white spots. Sand only deep enough to remove the white spots and STOP! This way you won't cut into new wood which would get you into the whole color difference/ halo darkening effect when you recoat the wood. Keep your patches as small as possible to keep from adding more and more weight to your boat.

The patch should overlap old glass by 2-3" and you'll only need to remove the varnish in that area by a couple more inches.

All the other scrapes and dents will visually disappear with a new coat of varnish.

For extra protection on the edges of the stems and keel I apply a 1" strip polypropylene cloth from Defender Industries on all my boats. This stuff is very abrasion resistant.

The following are the directions for applying this rub strip from my building plans:

Underwater Stem Protection
The edges of the fore and aft stems and underwater edges along the keel of your boat can sustain damage from abrasion fairly quickly if not protected.

Fiberglass cloth has tremendous impact strength, but it is not very good at abrasion protection. Use a specialty cloth designed for abrasion resistance to protect these edges.

I use polypropylene cloth from Defender Industries.
http://www.defender.com/welcome2.html

They also carry similar abrasion resistant clothes like Xynole© and Dynel©.

This strip of protective cloth need only be 1” wide. Sand with 80 grit paper along the keel bow and stern where you will be applying the abrasion strip. Use 2” masking tape to mask off an area along the keel at the stems from just above the waterline, back under the hull as far as your cloth length will allow.

Apply masking tape 1/2” on either side of the keel line. Apply tape crossing the keel strips at the ends to mask off this area. Cut a strip of the abrasion cloth 3” wide and full length, usually 60” long. Tape and stretch this cloth to the keel straddling the masked area.

Wet out the cloth and the cloth edges extending onto the masking tape. Press waxed paper and/or clear kitchen plastic wrap onto the wet resin. This will leave a smooth surface when removed.

When the resin has set to a leather hard stage, start peeling back the masking tape and cut the excess cloth on the edge of the inner cloth tape edge. Use a new blade in a utility knife to cut the leather hard resin and cloth. Press just hard enough to cut through the soft resin.
The underlying glass is hard enough to prevent hull damage unless you press really hard.
Continue to peel back the tape & cloth and cut a neat edge to the abrasion strip.

Let the abrasion strip harden and then sand the sharp edges smooth.

All the best,

Rob Macks
Laughing Loon CC&K
www.LaughingLoon.com