: The oilcanning is only happening on the left side of the hull.
: About halfway between the bottom of the hull and the seam line.
: So I'm assuming it makes the most sense to put the rib in the
: middle of that ? This little section of the hull seems to be
: permanently deformed. It is sharply bent in at the center of the
: weak spot. Is this something I should just expect to live with?
: My guess is that I will likely end up with a hole if I try to
: eliminate the deformation entirely. Maybe I should take a stab
: at cleaning up the deformation and gelcoat before adding the
: rib.

: Would you be able to take a guess at what a repair like this might
: cost? I'd really like to avoid spending money (read: I have no
: money). Is there anything you can think of that I could do as a
: temporary fix?

: Thanks again,
: Brian

: P.S. I'm not signed up for any of those online photo sharing sites,
: but if you think photos would help clear up some of my poor
: descriptions I could either email them to you or look into
: signing up for one of those sites.

Hi Brian,

Pictures would indeed help, you are always welcome to Email them to me. This site lists my email address.

Oh yeah btw, I agree with the assessment about the gelcoat, it's really cosmetic and it's rather tricky to repair, if it's not chipped off I'd suggest ignoring it, small cracks in the gelcoat is quite normal and hurt nothing. Fiberglass is rather flexible and gelcoat isn't, so microcracking happens, specially on very light "race" type boats.

Bill H.