I try to make a point at every steamboat meet to inspect my trailer while it's unloaded, as it is so much easier to see. My trailer has rollers under the keel, with carpeted bunks on either side. While at the meet in Clayton, NY last month, I looked over the trailer and found a single piece of road gravel about the size of a pea embedded in the carpet of one bunk, near its forward end. I assume that it was randomly flipped up there and perfectly hit the slight gap to slide in between the hull and the front end of the bunk. I made a note to check for any issues with the hull once I got back home.
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Sure enough, the hull was damaged, right through the fiberglass and into the wood, with the chunk of gravel damaging three distinct spots, two of which were about 3/4" long, with the rock moving to a new location once it became tired with where it was at.
After some consulting with my fiberglass touter, Steve Weaver, I ground out the holes with a burr in the Dremel, so fresh clean surfaces were showing, then filled the low spots with West System Six10 and sanded smooth. West system epoxy and a 4" square patch of fiberglass then covered the repair, and the hull is ready for a spot of paint.
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It was not easy to convince Allnutt. All his shop training had given him a profound prejudice against inexact work, experimental work, hit-or-miss work.
