How to strengthen a Laser Sailboat gunwale
8/19/2026 By: Oliver Darroch
Laser sailboats have been around for over 50 years and over 200,000 of them have been built. The construction quality is good for what they are but one thing I have found on most lasers is separation or cracks in the bottom of the gunwale. It is usually not an issue that will cause any damage to the boat boat. On older boats especially the cracks can be fairly large and the surface can become rough this is not ideal as lasers are lifted up regularly to go on cars or trailers. Also when you capsize you have to grab onto the gunwales and when you are planning downwind fast and stop suddenly and dry and dry dump the boat by holding on tight this really helps with.
The procedure is to grind out the old factory filling and put a lip of epoxy on it instead.
To do this we will need
-epoxy, acetone, dremel tool with small grinding tip, scale, cups, syringe, popsicle sticks, respirator
We start by flipping the laser upside down preferably at a height above the ground where you can work easily. Then take the Dremel and Dremel out approximatly 3-5mm of the old filler being careful to not get too deep or to hit the gelcoat. You want to have a small channel where you can pour in epoxy later on. Start at the bow and go all the way around. Once you have done this you will have a small grove. Clean the area with acetone all the way around . Next start mixing the epoxy. You will not need very much and approx 60-90 grams of epoxy should be enough. How we do this is we get our kitchen scale and put the cup we wont to mix on in on the scale. Then we zero the scale and pour in the epoxy until we get to the desired weight. Then we calculate how much harderner we need. Using West System epoxy we need a ratio of 5:1 epoxy/hardner. If we have any holes in the gunwale that look like they go all the way to the inside of the boat. Mix a smaller batch of epoxy using microballoons or in a pinch flour to thicken the epoxy into a peanut butter like paste. Enough so it wont run. Then take the paste and smoosh it in where the hole is. If you just let liquid runny epoxy into the inside of the boat you will add unnecessary weight to the boat. If you add this you will have to wait. If you don't care about weight disregard this. For normal appilcation once the epoxy is mixed suck up the running clear exposy with the syringe and run it around the gunwale filling it to flush/slightly high to get a smooth rounded finsh. Leave the boat to dry preferably 24 hrs and flip it back. You will now have a very smooth, comfortable gunwale to lift the laser that will be stronger and arguably stiffer boat. I have done this on 6 lasers I have owned and it has made a major difference when you try and dry dump a laser that has death rolled at speed and the gunwale is all you have to hang onto!
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