Guys,

 

One boater had quite the experience this past weekend which ended up as damage to the underside of his boat.  Saturday he went through his "checklist" at the hotel when we returned and saw some bends in the gel-coat on the underside of the boat.  After consulting the seniors in our club which includes a reputable dealer we decided it was ok to fish on it the next day.  The next day ends with his boat practically sinking on the run back to the launch.

 

He swears that there was no impact of any kind besides the running up and around waves.  No rock, no shoals, no submerged timber ... His co-anglers (day 1 and day 2) agreed.

 

Day 1 was a little rough but not rough enough to be dangerous.  2 footers and a good amount of wind at most. 6-10mph

Day 2 was much lighter than the 1st day. 4-6 mph.

 

The pictures tell the rest of the story.

 

Question to this forum ... have you ever heard of a Gel Coat failure from typical usage of a bass boat like this?  What could have caused this if him and/or his co-anglers didn't noticeably feel an impact.

 

 

Well since the damage is on the side rather than the bottom I would think it is a result of a manufacturing defect.

Jeebus. Without an impact of some kind, that has got to be a manufacturing defect. As far as I'm concerned, 2 footers and light wind shouldn't have caused that.

It's clear that the boat did not have an "impact" because you would certainly see a more confined area of damage, especially with scratches, spider cracks, etc. Sure hope the owner can get it sorted out!

Wow! That fibreglass doesn't even look like it has much resin in it. Manufacturing fault I'd guess.

Bet thats a nitro is it not? Theres a thread on a texas forum about the entire underside of a nitro delaminating. Hopefully that boat if so is no older than 5 and hes no more than the second owner cause if its a defect they wont honor it based on what I read in that other situation. The other guy insisted he never had an impact either but only bought the boat two weeks prior. Maybe he never hit anything, but unless hes the original owner, it doesnt mean it never was hit. Its also possible a rock came up off the road, hit it, cracked it, the waves cause the failure.

That's more than gel coat delaminating.

 

Has the person owned it since it was new?  If not, it's possible it was a prior repair job.  Some of the laminate separated, and the gel coat went with it.  That the bottom was "wavy" indicates that delamination of the composite had taken place.  Eventually, when it let go, most likely toward the front, sections of the "blisters" were peeled off by the force of water at speed.

 

I'd guess it started at the clean, transverse crack that broke the roving.  Could be a problem with the stringers and bulkheads that provide stiffness to a hull.  That could account for the long longitudinal crack at the lower edge of the damaged area.

Thanks for all the replies. This is a 2 year old Nitro Z-6. He bought it brand new.

I just hope things work out for him.

Wasn't there a post on here not too long back about a Nitro that the hull had hooked bad and they took care of him with a new boat.  That looks like a defective hull if I have ever seen one.  Found it  http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/126061-hooked-hull/?hl=%2Bnitro+%2Bhooked+%2Bhull

This literally JUST HAPPENED to my buddy and me after a two or three mile run. Just barely got it back to the launch. We're thinking his warranty will cover it since he's the first owner and he didn't hit anything.