Serious Hull Repair - Fiberglass Surgery Questions

[kta]

This question is purely out of curiosity.

I've seen a couple boat listings lately for 40+ foot boats that have been knocked off their jackstands and the side of the hull has been cracked open. I'm sure this is repairable, but I'm wondering what the process is.

I've done minor fiberglass work to repair small damage, but this is serious damage!





Can this be repaired reliably? Is it just a matter of cutting back all the damaged edges to make them smooth, then grind/sand in a taper and start laying new glass? Or will entire sections get cut away and replaced all at once? Some of the cracks run all the way up to the deck joint, so there are serious structural concerns with a repair like this.

I was trying to dig up some threads about a repair like this, but couldn't find other cases that were so dire. It seems that unless you doubled up the thickness of the glass along the whole side of the hull it would never be as strong as it once was.

Anyone fix something like this? I'd love to read about it!