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/
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