Happy New Year again Seabreezers

need some advice on two issues. Have attached some photos as, well, pictures say a thousand words and my explaining is not very good.

1. The gunwales on my boat are timber, glassed over and gelcoated. The starboard side is in pretty good shape, however, some of the port side is damaged. The timber is rotten and the gelcoat and glass have come away. It has been covered over in areas with some kind of filler - car bog? spakfilla? - crumbles away under the touch of a screwdriver.

One of the long-term plans was to replace the old fibreglass-enclosed gunwale with a natural timber strip. Due to the rot present, I may have to consider doing it sooner rather than later. My question is, considering what little you guys can determine from the photos, how difficult and/or expensive a project does this pose??


2. Okay, now this is hard to explain. The fibreglass in the bilge under the cabin sole enclosing the keel is soggy...as in, above the keel. It is not shiny, smooth like a resin finish, it is not painted/flowcoated. It is simply rovings that seem not to have had enough resin applied to seal and make it 'fibreglass'.

My Folkboat is bone dry in this part of the bilge (she gets water in the bilge area underneath the cockpit), however, I still don't feel good about this 'soggy' look and feel.

Suggestions? Resin? How do I exhume the moisture beforehand???


Thanks for your help

Trace