Stepped hulls on Outerlimits, Donzi, Fountain and other performance boats delaminate at the steps and lift the chines under extreme loads. Most shops won’t touch them. Captain Levi’s grinds the damage out, rebuilds the laminate with the resin the boat was built with, and fairs the step back to its true shape.
A stepped deep-V bottom lets a performance boat run on less wetted surface, but every step and lift chine is a tight little radius that is hard to laminate cleanly. Even with vacuum bagging, a fabric lamination can trap an air void in those corners. At speed, the water loads hammer that void until the laminate around the step delaminates and the chine starts to lift.
Captain Dave cut his teeth building high-performance deep-V fiberglass boats in the 1960s, when air voids were the same problem. He would tap the chines with an oak block and hammer, listening for voids and repairing them before a boat left the shop. Today a brushable radius compound, applied directly behind the gelcoat, fills those tight radii before the laminate goes on. Repairing a step that has already failed means finding the full extent of the void first.
Builders like Outerlimits impregnate carbon fiber and fiberglass fabrics with precise amounts of epoxy, vacuum bag the hull and cure it in a temperature-controlled oven over two days for maximum strength.
Donzi, Fountain and many other performance boats have the same trouble with hull steps and lift chines, but their hulls are laid up in polyester resin, so the repair resin changes.
The business’s own photo of the Outerlimits after its hull step repair. Detail photos of the delaminated step are not in the archive.
Built by Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats in Bristol, Rhode Island, this epoxy-and-carbon hull is designed to run in excess of 160 miles an hour. That is a punishing activity that tests the limits of the boat’s construction, its drive train and its operator, and anything less than top-quality workmanship and materials can be fatal. Its modified quad-step deep-V bottom had delaminated at the steps at high speed.
After consulting the epoxy manufacturer’s technical department, Captain Dave took on the repair. The void and the surrounding delamination were ground out with a 4″ angle grinder and a 24-grit disc to scarf a sound bonding surface, then rebuilt in a slow-hardener marine epoxy: chopped strand mat, 1708 biaxial cloth (17 oz at 45° with a 3/4 oz mat backing), another 3/4 oz mat and a finishing layer of 10 oz cloth. The step was faired to its true shape, skimmed with P-77 filler, sprayed with custom-matched gelcoat, wet sanded with 500 grit and machine buffed with AQUABUFF 1000 and 2000.
The sequence is the same on every stepped hull. What changes is the resin, chosen to match how the boat was built.
Tap-test the steps and chines to find how far the void and delamination run beyond what you can see.
A 24-grit disc on an angle grinder scarfs the area so the new layup bonds to solid glass, not to the failed bond.
Mat, 1708 biaxial and cloth wet out in marine epoxy for epoxy hulls, or vinyl ester for polyester hulls.
Fairing is shaping, not just sanding smooth: the step has to come back to its exact form. P-77 filler finishes to a feather edge.
Do everything else right and a mismatched color still fails. Send us a gelcoat sample and we match it before spraying.
500-grit wet sanding, then machine buffing with AQUABUFF 1000 and 2000 so the repair cannot be picked out.
At 160 mph a weak step is not cosmetic; it is dangerous. The repair has to match the original engineering, the resin has to match the build, and the shape has to come back exactly. That is why many fiberglass shops are hesitant to take on high-performance hulls, and why we have repaired many of them.
Step repairs are yard work: the boat is hauled and blocked at our Largo shop and boat yard. Pick-up and transport is available across Pinellas County and Tampa.
Send photos and the builder and year for a free quote, or call the yard.
Have a stepped hull that is delaminating at the steps or chines? Fill out the form or give us a call — we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Your boat deserves the best, and we’re here to make it happen.
Tell us about your boat and the damage. We’ll get back to you quickly.
Captain Levi is an AI assistant. Chats may be saved so our crew can follow up. Nothing here is a confirmed quote. Privacy
