Water Taxi Belly Pan Repair Job

About eight years ago, I did a repair job for a company called Statue Cruises. They own a water taxi, which is used to ferry people back and forth between New Jersey and New York.

Running a water taxi on the Hudson River on a regular basis puts a lot of abuse on the boat. With waves constantly hitting the hull, to docking the boat at the New York piers where waves push it into the dock, the boat's fiberglass can get destroyed over time. And that's exactly what happened to Statue Cruises' water taxi. At some point, the belly pan separated from the hull, making it unfit for the water.

The company that built this particular water taxi is located in Florida. Sections of the hull where built using Nida-Core honeycomb and fiberglass reinforcement, which just didn't hold up in the good old Hudson River. In these photos, you will see how that material was destroyed, because it was not backed up and laid up with the proper fiberglass materials. You'll also see photos that show how the buider in Florida dummied it up, filling holes which where cut in the wrong spot, and stuffing them with fiberglass to "correct" the problem they carelessly created.

You will see how I took the water taxi apart, reconstructed the belly pan and made it a lot stronger and once again seaworthy, even under close inspection of Coast Guard, who was very impressed with my work.

I, along with one part-time helper, performed this job and I'm happy to say that after eight years since the repair, Statue Cruises' water taxi is holding up very well to this day, with not a single crack or leak. You'll see how I lifted a 10-foot by 12-foot section of fiberglass, weighing over 300-lbs, with a device I fabricated. Without that device, it would have taken at least six people to hold the boat in place, so I could shape the belly pan to fit the contour of the hull, and then finally attach the belly pan to the hull. This was a very challenging job and I have to say that I'm really proud of it.

Here, I'm building a wooden frame to enclose the boat to keep it warm and dry during the repair process.

Enclosed with shrink wrap.

Exhaust fan and door installed.

My supplies: 55 gallons of resin and 2 rolls of fiberglass.

Here, I'm cutting away the fiberglass belly pan to see what's hiding inside.

This is a main beam made out of Nida-Core. You can see the extent of the damage.

Notice one of the holes that was cut in the wrong spot. And what did the water taxi manufacturer do to "correct" their mistake -- they rolled up a ball of fiberglass and stuffed it into the hole. Not good!

This is a cross beam attached to the main beam. First, you can see that the builder did not prep the fiberglass surface, and then used mat fiberglass to connect all of the structural parts together. This was just all wrong.

Inside the belly pan. See how the fiberglass separated? What happened here is that the fiberglass was laid on top of resin that had wax on it. Companies put wax on the resin so that the resin will cure. But you have to remove the wax before you lay more fiberglass on the surface, because if you don't, you will see this. I've done hundreds of repairs like this, where the builder forgets, or neglects, to remove the wax.