Boating How-To’s - How to repair holes in gunwales?

Someone stole my bimini top recently by ripping out the last two attaching points in the stern of my boat. They just pulled on it until the two screws that held the clips in place popped out, leaving small holes and a bit of rough edges on the top of the gunwales. There are photos attached. How would you repair these, please? Thanks for any help...

Depends on how fussy you are. An easy fix is to use a countersink bit to clean up the ragged edges and then fill with white marine tex. Sand smooth. A more elaborate approach, if you want it to match, is to clean up the holes the same way, then use a small dab of fiberglass to fill the hole, let it cure, then fill with tinted gel coat. sand, buff out. The patch kits are available at west marine. (as is the Marine Tex).

Since someone stole your top, I'm assuming you'll be replacing it? If so, I would remove the inset rod storage tray to the left to get access under the gunwale....I would then drill out the holes to clean...sand prep and epoxy a backing plate from underneath....fill and redrill the holes with thickened epoxy...then thru bolt the new fasteners.....the new hardware will cover the repair so re-gelcoating isn't necessasry unless you really want it.

Thanks, Bouy Scout and maxie. Excellent advice, both.

West Systems has a great web site with tips on all types of repairs.

Thanks, tugboatg.