Equipment needed: Allen key set, hand router, acetone, adequate safety equipment, 40 grit sandpaper, wax, gel and hardener, resin and hardener, fibre glass matting, marker pen, masking tape, brushes.

Some earlier Kari-Tek plastic skeg boxes have come partially loose and started to leak. This procedure is for fixing the leak and making the skeg box to hull joint stronger to prevent any future leaks.

The hardest part of a repair to the surface of a coloured fibre glass boat is matching the colour shade. Even "factory colours" don't match exactly after a boat has been in the sun for a few years. The best way to match the colour of your boat is to use a colour match gel coat kit. (Internet search engine tip: Enter colour match gel coat kit + your area).

Never try to gel coat repair shallow scratches. A thin layer of gel coat isn't structurally strong enough to prevent itself cracking off. Either deepen the scratch using a small blade or grinder, or leave it. Unless the scratch goes through to the glass matting it won't harm the boat.

From the inside:

• Sand the area around the hole. Remove any dust and clean the surface using acetone.
• Cut out 4 pieces of chopped strand mat that overlap the hole by about 2″ (50 mm) all the way round.

If the leak isn't obvious you need to increase the pressure in the boat to force air out of the leak. You can do this by taping a large plastic bag around the hatch rim of the suspect compartment. Then make a hole in the bag and use it as a bellows to increase the pressure in the compartment. Your boat may have a tiny hole drilled in the bulkhead to equalise pressure, you will then need to tape this up from the inside of the compartment you are testing.

Equipment needed:

Hand pump recess moulding (our recess fits the small hand pump with a metal shaft by Prion), large piece of paper, pencil and marker pen, methacrylate adhesive with curing agent, acetone, cloths, a hand router, 40 grit sand paper, adequate safety equipment.

All the Kari-tek skegs are available as a retro fit kit complete with instructions on how to fit them. For more information please see the Kari-tek website.

To replace the wire first, remove the old wire by loosening the grub screw in the slider knob. Pull the skeg blade down and release the retaining screw on the wire. To replace the wire, fit one end of the wire into the skeg blade and tighten the retaining screw.

As we don't do these skegs anymore, unfortunately we don't stock the parts. You can get the plastic slider from P&H with the grub screw and the steel slider bar from Valley. You will have to drill out the hole in the top of the slider so it fits the grub screw and the transverse hole so it fits on the steel tube.

The rope can be replaced with any rope that works in the cleat and fits through the tube through the cockpit area. We use 4 mm nylon. Kevlar strengthened produces the best results. If there is a lot of friction in the systemit is often from sand and salt build up in this tube, flushing it through with fresh water can help.

The rope can be replaced with any rope that works in the cleat. We use 4 mm nylon. Kevlar strengthened produces the best results. Where the rope enters the boat at the back it can cut a groove into the fitting making it stiff to use.