Holy....

After bringing the boat back from Lake Norris, I started cleaning the hull, not because of the water at Norris, but because of the Ohio River residue that was on there before the trip! I armed myself with some Hull Cleaner, two buckets & a few rags. I put some serious work into getting the river stains out, and when coming around the front of the hull, I looked and saw this.


So the investigation begins...
Closeup of deepest one.

So I thought about how this could possibly have happened, and I know it didn't happen at Lake Norris, there was no debris, and the boat was never taken into water more shallow than 15ft. I've come to the conclusion that the damage was by my harbor. I'm not holding them responsible, since I know I won't win, but I know they most likely did it. The damage looks perfectly spaced out for the fenders on the trailer, especially if coming at a sharp angle. The rule at the harbor is that if you're out past 9pm, you have to leave your boat tied up at the dock and they will load the boat back on the trailer at 9am the next morning. I've seen them do this many times before, and they "walk the boats" with the lines onto the trailer. I'm assuming this is how it could have happened, especially since they're usually in a hurry, and the lowest hole on the hull seems to have a black scuff from the bunk right in front of it, you can see it in the pics.

ANYWAY, so I did my research on the Trailer Boats Forum as to what kind of repair could be done, and I heard some great things about this product called "Marine-Tex Epoxy". It's a 2 oz 2-part epoxy that advertises it "handles like putty, stronger than steel, sands like wood". I figured this would work great. So I bought a kit, which was about $10. Not bad!


So I applied it on, here's the finished product.

Not the prettiest thing in the world until it's sanded, but I'm going to hit it with some low grit sandpaper and see where that gets me, and then polish and wax it back up once it cures. I'm going to give it a day to cure though. Watch here for an update.