Fiberglass Repair

My boat is a 95 Hydrodyne Grand Sport. It was purchased 7 years ago by me and 3 friends in our early 20's. Since then, all 3 other friends have married and started families, leaving me with all the maintenance on the boat.

3 years ago one of the owners took the boat to a lake they weren't familiar with and hit a submerged tree at slow speed.. Once they returned I inspected the damage. There was only small "spider cracks" in the gel coat around the area where the strut is mounted to the bottom of boat. It looked very minor so nothing was done.

At the end of last season our prop had minor damage, and I wanted an upgrade, so I bought a new one and had the old one fixed for repair. When swapping the props, I inspected the strut area again and found large cracks in gel coat, and parts of the gel coat gone. If I push on the strut sideways with my hand, there is movement and I can see the fiberglass "flexing."

I have always been the DIY kind of person, but don't know if I am out of my league here. I haven't taken it to a professional to have it looked at yet. One of the other boat owners works at a body shop and has experience in fiberglass and gel coat repairs and thinks we can fix it ourselves.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Link to more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/95492847@N08/

That's not good. Your strut is probably bent, and bushings shot - that's the least of your worries now. That isn't a patch job, that needs to be a structural repair from probably the inside, and out, if the strut MOVES. You need to grind back the cracks and properly fix and reinforce and then re-gel the bottom. It's probably 1000-1500 having someone else do it. I would not use the boat before repairing it properly, and would probably have someone else do the work if you've never done structural fiberglass work yourself before...

what's access like from inside the boat? that second pic looks like water seeping from saturated wood backing. even if the backing isn't saturated, you're going to want to inspect it really good and you'll need to reach the nuts on those screws.

it's not a very hard project. drop the strut and determine if backing needs to be replaced. prop shop can straighten strut. repair hull and re-install strut. almost 20 yr old boat and very hard to see spot, don't really even need to re-gelcoat. i like marinetex in spots like that on an old hull, sold in white.

I won't be using the boat until this is repaired. There is plenty of access room in the boat. I took those pictures the same day I noticed the damage. The boat had been out of the water to swap props for about an hour before I took those pics.

I doubt the strut is bent. He hit the tree 3-4 years ago, There was never any vibration or other noticeable problems with the boat.

Post pics of the rear of the strut and the shaft. The strut is supposed to bend before the hull gives way...