Bavaria Gelcoat Composition?

[Kerry1]

Hi, Recently I damaged my gelcoat on the topsides by getting pinned by wind and tide against a marina attenuator. Wouldn't have been so bad if I had realized one of the mooring cleats I came alongside was proud of the wooden buffer strip by about 10mm. Left a couple of deep gouges in my gelcoat. Why any idiot would leave the base of the cleat proud of the edge I don't know, seems a no-brainer to me. Mind you coming alongside in those conditions I have to admit was also a no-brainer

Anyway have reasonable resources for how to make repair but just wondering if anyone would know what BavariaYachtbeau use in laying up the gelcoat? I have a Bavaria 38, white topsides. Would make colour selection a lot easier if I could just use the manufacturers product, as I understand the matching of colour is the real problem. It's a 2004 boat and seems not to have suffered much by way of colour degradation/fading. I'm in NZ by the way so sourcing material from Europe not really an option. Any ideas? Thanks.

[minaret]

Even if you source the builders gel, you will still have to color match. There is enough difference from drum to drum that I often have to do multiple matches on a single boat, usually because the deck part is a slightly different color than the hull. On larger boats, I sometimes even see a difference between bow and stern, or port and stbd, even on newer boats. This is due to color variation. Mind you, I am making 100% perfect matches. Polish an area, use your suppliers color chart to select the closest color that is a shade lighter (not too dark), and adjust to match using gel coat pigments. Or, hire a pro.

[Kerry1]

Originally Posted by minaret

Even if you source the builders gel, you will still have to color match. There is enough difference from drum to drum that I often have to do multiple matches on a single boat, usually because the deck part is a slightly different color than the hull. On larger boats, I sometimes even see a difference between bow and stern, or port and stbd, even on newer boats. This is due to color variation. Mind you, I am making 100% perfect matches. Polish an area, use your suppliers color chart to select the closest color that is a shade lighter (not too dark), and adjust to match using gel coat pigments. Or, hire a pro.

Yes I get your point, in fact I have since found out that there is not much by way of gelcoat repair products in our town and still less pro's who do the work. However a helpful guy at the local paint shop pointed me in the direction of someone who still does it and so have (as you suggested) hired a "pro".