This past weekend, we managed to crack the 4mm marine ply hull on my wife's new VOLKSKAYAK - I launched her stern-first by lifting the bow - when I let go, the bow section came down on a sharp rock. The resulting crack is L-shaped, about 6 inches long with a 1 inch spur at 90 degrees to that. It has noticeably displaced the panel to the inside. It's bad enough to let in about a gallon of water enter the forward compartment on a thirty minute paddle.

I'd prefer not to place a FG tape patch on the outside for cosmetic reasons - thinking of sanding down the inside ridge, applying two or three overlapping layers of FG tape, then sanding the outside indentation (it's pretty shallow) and filling it with a epoxy-silica mix. If anyone has a better approach, or sees any major problem with my idea, suggestions would be much appreciated.