Stress cracks, how serious??

I just had my 04 X2 detailed, and my detail guy uncovered some pretty gnarly stress cracks that I never noticed before. The picture really doesn't do them justice, but you can get an idea of how long they are, and their location, you just have to look close. They start at the white plastic vent near the observer side windshield, and travel down to the rubrail. They vary in length from 2-6 inches, and there's about a dozen of them over a 10-12 inch span.

I talked to my dealer today, and he said they could get the boat right in and do the gelcoat work, but that kind of worries me. The cracks are above the rubrail, and my whole entire boat is solid red. Will they be able to match the color that closely? Is there anything else I should be concerned about before taking it in for gelcoat repair?

I don't think that's normal. Mot vertical cracks.

Maybe an issue specific to that model boat?

Do you stack more boards/racks on that side Joe? Two 10/10's hanging in the passenger side of the tower????

As much as fixing the damage, I would want to come to the bottom of what caused them.....

E.J.

A good gel coat guy can match it with no problem. Pretty normal stuff...

Man, that does seem pretty excessive.

Usually the first stress cracks your boat will have, is where the tower is mounted to the hull. I talked to Andrew with Tige Boats in Dallas and he said that is common and there is nothing to worry about. Not to sure about yours though.

The cracks are about 8 inches from the front left tower mount. None of the cracks go within 8 inches of it. They're pretty much all between the vent and the rub rail.

The boat has never been crashed into a dock, or even tied to one for that matter. And other than a trip to Shasta last year, and the day I brought the boat home, it's never been trailered down the road for more than 20 miles. We never ride in rough water, and never drive double ups. Basically the hull has never seen any abuse, other than running a lot of ballast.

The key thing is how good are the gelcoat repair guys. I had some cracks on my 2002 X-Star and the dealer sent it to some crap shop that I think used paint to try and match the gelcoat. Looked good for about 6 months and then faded.

Joe..

Like others have stated, Some stress cracks are normal. As long as the dealer steps up and fixes them all is good. The gel might have been sprayed thin in that spot, the gel might have been mixed to thin, Could be 20 different things. Dosent look structural to me, just get them fixed and keep an eye on them!. By the way, I didn't think MC's ever had any problems?? ;-) J/K

Sean

A good gel coat repair shop/person can fix this easily...it is not normal but it is not abnormal (in other words it happens to some boats but not the majority). The cracks I see in your boat are caused by the screws that hold the rub rail track to the boat being too tight. There is a groove cut around the boat under this track in an effort to keep this kind of thing from happening. The groove should be checked for proper depth during the repairs and the screw tension adjusted. No major flaw at work here and you should not be able to see the repairs once completed.

Great reply and info Zed.....

E.J.

when i was looking to buy a mc, i heard about this (you might want to check the mc owners website)...

from what i heard (if i remember correctly) it was a improper gel mixture and mc replaced the boat..

Joe, just curious, have you ever pulled a tube from the tower or more than 1 rider at one time?

A tube!? Blasphemy! To date, the boat has never pulled a tube or a ski from anywhere at all, especially the tower. In fact, I removed the ski pylon the day I brought the boat home!


The cracks coming from the rub rail screws makes perfect sense. My dealer has their own gel coat spray booth and all of that fancy stuff, so I'll try to get it in there pretty quick and see how it turns out.

My friends red X-30 did the same thing and he just had it repaired by a gelcoat guy, Mastercraft covered it under warranty. The boat is a 2003, I think...

I wouldn't worry about anything really. I am suprized at how much some of the people baby there boats on here!! Never towing it anywhere and staying out of rough water? We towed our boat at least 20k miles and drove it through some serious chop out at Lake powell for hours driving to the ruins and such. Never driving your boat around a choppy lake and not towing it anywhere is like buying a hummer and keeping it in your neibourhood, and mostly in the garage. I think our boat has probably cought air a few times. We hooked it up to the back of our house boat to help it off the Beach a couple times as well and we never had a stress crack in the getcoat ever. They make these hulls pretty damn tough. Why else would you get a lifetime Guarentee? I think your boat is gonna be just fine. the gelcoat is just like paint on a car. Has nothing to do with the fiberglass hull nessecarily.

It's not that I avoid driving in chop, or towing long distances, it's just that I don't have to. The areas I ride are nearby, and never get rough. On the rare occasion they do get rough, I've got other things I'd rather be doing with my time than riding a wakeboard in chop.

Sorry Joe, did't mean to offend you. I see alot of wakeboarding boats pulling tubes from their towers at the lake I ride. That can't be good for a gel coat.

I couldn't imagine that it has more stress with the tube than wakeboarder behind the boat!

Joe, what shop did you talk to? I had a few of the same on my 01 and Liquid Wrenchs did the repairs, My boat is yellow and I cant even tell were they were now. They did a great job.

I felt the same as you Big Ed, but I have been told by many people not to tow a tube from the tower. The main reason was incase the tube flipped over and drags in the water. Another was when you cut a try to the get tube in the air it is alot more abrupt force than a wakeboarder. I don't know it could be a bunch of bull, but I will confess I tow a tube here in there when the water is rough and I always tow with the pylon.