Cove stripe anomaly

[Dan Morehouse]

So, after reading a recent thread that mentioned many general issues vis a vis cove stripes, I finally remembered one of the strangest quirks on my boat. I had owned it for over a year when I first noticed that the stripes on either side were TWO DIFFERENT colors...I kid you not, one side was grey, and the other was beige. Each appeared for all the world to be original gelcoat. I intended to bring this to the attention of this board for discussion for years, but other imperatives intercepted me. Has anyone ever heard of such an anomaly? I also had some wierd gelcoat cracking on the starboard cabin trunk side where it cracked clear through to the underlying laminate in an area of 2 or 3 square feet...not just crazing. Thoughts?

 

[Frank Langer]

Hi Dan,

That is certainly very interesting. My first thought is to wonder if there might have been some earlier damage to the one side, explaining the cracking gelcoat and perhaps an attempt by a previous owner to repair the cove stripe area, but using readily available beige gelcoat rather than the blue gelcoat on the other side. Any history which would lend credence to this hypothesis?

If that's not it, I wonder if the gelcoat was applied on a Monday morning with workers semi-asleep, picking up the wrong can of gelcoat for the cove stripe and applying gelcoat too thinly on the cabin top leading to crazing.

What a puzzle...can you post some pics to help us visualize?

Frank

 

[Dan Morehouse]

I already painted the cove stripes black several years ago, which was a great improvement. I'll have to try to get some pics of the funky cabin gelcoat next time I'm at the boat.

The original gelcoat cove stripes looked too perfect to have been applied aftermarket by someone who didn't even know or care if it was the same color. But two different people at the factory doing different sides of the boat, and maybe seperated by a weekend sounds plausible. Or maybe a rookie factory gelcoat guy with insufficient supervision. I have close to zero experience with gelcoat, and am not looking forward to coping with the cracking.