My boat is broken. In hindsight it's my fault totally, I got too relaxed in how I tied it down. I was out yesterday paddling and a pretty stiff wind picked up. I got off the water and loaded the boat onto the truck. It was only a short drive and so I didn't use bow and stern tie downs. I just used straps to tie the boat to the Thule cradles. Unfortunately, the combination of driving and the wind ripped the boat and cradles off the rack at around 40 miles an hour. The rack stayed on the truck, however the boat smashed into the end of a guard rail. Thank god it wasn't someone's car, a boat can hopefully be repaired. It would've been terrible to have hurt someone.

So now to the meat of my post... repairing the damage. I'm pretty sure it's repairable, just not sure of the steps to really follow. I'm thinking that I'll use a thin saw to cut the damaged area out in an irregular shape following the layout of the strips. I guess I'll sand back the glass so that I can fair the new glass into the boat somewhat. I'm concerned about having a white halo around the repair. Is this avoidable?

What's the easiest way to strip the varnish... simply sanding?

I have left over strips that I saved for just such an event, just didn't think it would be quite this bad. Has anyone had a repair like this and how noticable was it once you were done with the repair?

Here's the signin for Photoisland, it's my email address: ljb@samnet.net
Password: kayak

The folder is Kayak damage.

Thanks for any advice.
Leo