: appreciate any comments, thanks, Pete czerpak albany, NY

if you can push the wood fibers back into place then you don't need a patch. Push the area back into shape if you can. Sand off the glass on both sides (inside and outside of the hull) of the hole, feathering the edges. Let it dry thoroughly before recovering with the glass and resin. If your sanding has messed up the appearance of the wood in that area, then you'll want to go for a patch. Otherwise, just let it dry and recover with glass and resin.

You may want to wait on this repair. The amounts of resin that you will mix up for such small repairs are minuscule. Why not just replace the duct tape by slapping a patch of glass and resin on the outside of your boat. ( Just use one or two coats of resin to barely fill the weave) No real need to do any work on the inside of the boat at this time. This will be a simple replacement for the duct tape, and little more. Then, at the end of the season you can sand off this temproary patch and redo the job properly. By that time you may have several more scratches, dings and dent to deal with -- and you can do them all at the same time.

By the way, what was the layup of glass on your hull? Also, what was the thickness of the plywood used for the hull? it is a totally unscientific survey, but I'm interested in seeing if the reports of dings and hull penetrating holes are realted to perhaps thin plywood construction and lightweight glass, or if they are as common as with the thicker construction.

PGJ