Repair keel - Vinylester or epoxy

[boatsnh]

I've got a couple 10-14 inch cracks in the Starboard side of my keel that have shown up as the boat sat in the yard "drying out" this summer. Little white fur balls growing out of the hull - sort of like science class.....We had a "grounding" a few years back & I'd suspect that these are the result.......

I'll grind out the "cracks" to 10-12 :1 - Probably feather out 4-5 inches and laminate back up with mat/cloth/roving ect. I'm not too concerned about the schedule of glass, - been there/done that - but was thinking about using polyester/vinylester resin for the repair instead of epoxy - (I know...Gougeon brothers say only epoxy, epoxy, epoxy.....I repaired lot's of polyester boats in the 70's- 90's with polyester & they still are out there floating & everything.

I was thinking of using Vinylester & glass to repair since I can get Vinylester resin to not get "hot" in a large laminate - Sets quick. Grinds nice - reasonably cheap...Smells awful.

Anyone out there using vinylester resins for hull repair or does everyone use epoxy only??

[LazyGuy]

I would go with epoxy. Yes it is more expensive but every bit of research out there says that epoxy works better on cured vinyl-ester than vinyl-ester does. It is like nails and screws. Nails work, my house has been standing for well over 100 years but screws would have worked that much better. Maybe the entire structure would not be leaning into the back yard if they had held everything together with screws.

Dennis