A close up of the bottom with tape added to the most flexible part of the keel. I put a short strip right over the crack, which looked much worse than I had thought after sanding. It is too bad, I cannot reach this part of the sit on top from the inside of the hull. After the short strip I added a 1.5 inch strip and a 2.5 inch strip about 3 feet long.
Here is a long shot of the hull after sanding reveals all the old repairs.
To make tape by cutting fiberglass cloth in a straight line, I remove a few threads. This makes a path I can easily see for the scissors to follow.
I save the left over threads and twist them up and add resin to them to repair the stern wear on the keel.
Here is the stern repair. After the epoxy set a bit more I used my fingers to form it and smooth it out. I will do minimal sanding on the sides of the repairs and the rest will get smoothed by rocks and logs.
Now I'm wondering if a composite boat is actually better than a plastic boat. I drag the plastic boats everywhere except on pavement and they last a long long time without ever needing repairs and painting on the bottom.
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