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[quote=benedict]Excellent update! I've got a number of repairs coming up, and it looks like you're touching on almost every one. I'm really looking forward to your experience with gel coat.

My hulls are good below deck, but the decks themselves are terrible. I was planning to use the Dremel and grinder bit to open up all the cracks, similar to how you've done it, but some areas are so alligatored I'll have to sand them down to primer. I like the 120 grit wheel idea. Did that offer you enough control to get things to the primer without going too far? Because of the hard deck on the P-Cat, I'm going to have to do a LOT of grinding to make this work.

But what I'm really curious about is what your 10' rule approach will be on the gelcoat. Most of the posts I've read have some sort of caution in there about the amount of sanding required afterward to make the surface smooth. For hulls below deck, I can see that. You want it smooth so it moves through the water. But for a deck? Most of my deck is non-skid anyway. I'm tempted to just roll on two to three layers and call it good. The orange peel effect doesn't sound like it would be a problem on deck. And if I change my mind later, I can always do a sand and polish job on it.

Do you mind discussing your plans for the gelcoat step?

Thanks again for the excellent write-up. Freakin' inspirational.

Tom[/quote]

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