gel coat cracks

[Ken Kaiser]

My 1998 Stratos 219F is starting to show gel coat cracks, on the inside of the boat (up by the bow of the boat). Do I get these fixed ? What damage can they cause if I don't.

[Robertp]

You did not say exactly where the cracks are so it's tough to know exactly where in the boat this is happening. If it is inside, maybe part of the cap,or, perhaps a console, something like that, I doubt if the cracks will hurt anything other than being perhaps a little unsightly. It could likely be caused by some flexing in that particular part of the boat perhaps coupled by the particular type of gel coat used by the mfgr. If flexing is the cause it will likely re-occur at some point unless additional bracing may be added to make it more ridgid. If it's not too unsightly, I'd probably not waste the money. I would not give the same advise if a gel coat crack is below the water line on the outside of the boat. In that case the cracks could lead to delamination and eventually structural failure. They are hard to diagnose and occur in many long and wide beam boats such as yours.