: I'd sand away the gelcoat over the oilcanned area, and probably go
: halfway through the fiberglass. draw a circle around the damage,
: about 2 inches out from the damage on all sides. Sand down
: through the damage to remove it. If you hit the ribs, you've
: gone deep enough. All that damaged area has to be removed. It is
: not giving you any strength there now, so put in something
: better. Sand a gentle taper from the pit you've created to the
: circle you drew around it. That gives you a gently tapering area
: away from the damaged area, blending into the rest of the hull.
: When you put on a patch it will fill the hollow, and bond nicely
: to the tapered area, but the patch material will end up above
: the lines of the hull. Once the patch has hardened you will sand
: down that excess and smoth the area so the patch matches the
: original lines exactly, and has a strong bond to the surrounding
: hull.

From what I've read about patches each layer gets a bigger piece of fiberglass until the final piece which goes all the way to the circle I drew basically filling in the taper. Is that correct and what you mean by patch?

Since the damage isn't on an internal rib like you were thinking is the above still necessary? I am still probably going to try fixing the gelcoat, but I think at some point during this discussion it was mentioned that is really just cosmetic.

: Once you've done the outside you can try to get the damaged
: material out of the inside, but sanding in that area is going to
: be no fun. Same idea here, though. taper in an area 2 inches
: away from the damage so you have a good bonding surface area. A
: patch made this way will be as strong as the original boat.

I still haven't bought a hairdryer to try popping out the indent, but based on picture of the inside of the cockpit does the fiberglass look damaged enough that I should sand through it and make a patch? I believe your original thought was that I could avoid any sanding and just place the rib in.

: After that you can put in some internal ribs to add additional
: strength and avoid a repetition of this problem.

You say "some" internal ribs. Do you think it will take more than one to fix this problem? I guess I could put in one nice big rib right on the center of the oilcanning and add more as needed. I'm going to have a hard time doing any work inside the cockpit much beyond the cockpit rim, but hopefully that will be deep enough.

: Good luck with your patching. If you use epoxy you will want to
: paint or varnish any on the outside of the boat. I'd just paint
: the patched area this year, and maybe next year fix up a few
: more spots where repairs have been made. Then, 2 years from now,
: give the hull a light sanding and repaint it white. Of course,
: if you like sanding and painting more than I do you can
: accelerate this schedule. :)

What do you mean by paint? You mean applying new gelcoat?

Thanks,
Brian