I hit a rock with my aluminum boat over the weekend. I made a gps track going out . Came back was off a little bit hit the rock . weird things is my depth finder was showing 10 feet of water. I was just trolling speed but damage to scrape and dent bottom of boat…So far no leaks.
So does anyone know or experience a shop you could recommend.
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Sucks to have that happen, but that is only the first of likely many to come. Personally Id leave it alone. Doesnt look like it will cause you any further issues.
It looks deep. If it is not leaking it might be best to leave it. If it makes you feel any better. I hit a tree top still rooted in the ground in 30’ of water.
Georges Marine Repair in East Bethel.
763-434-5999
Hey now it looks like the bottom of my boat. 
Good thing you didn’t have a fiberglass boat.
Good thing you didn’t have a fiberglass boat.
Wouldn’t be a dent.
Wouldn’t be a dent.
Haha. Would just be a hole I presume.
I doubt there would be a hole if its fiberglass. But your call either to leave it or not. I would would get it checked out, one wrong big wave could stress that metal and spilt.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dutchboy wrote:</div>
Wouldn’t be a dent.Haha. Would just be a hole I presume.
Takes a lot like a direct hit to make a hole in fiberglass. Most would just be glancing blows.
Small hole in Fiberglass is pretty trivial to fix too isn’t it? It was my understanding that fiberglass is more easily repairable than aluminum..
I know a guy who literally almost split his boat in half on the ocean. They were able to put it back together in their garage and it’s back out on the ocean again!
I have a few of those on the bottom of my boat as well. I just leave them be. Battle scars from the river
I’ve got one just like it people like to point out when they see it on the trailer, near the bow. No leaks = don’t both touching it.
I thought about paintless dent removal, but knowing how it works I’m concerned it might actually cause a leak by pulling on nearby rivets.
I’d say if there’s no leak and it hasn’t affected driveability don’t mess with it. Mine is so far forward it’s not in the water at most speeds above trolling. Yours may be different.
I got a very similar boat and much bigger scrapes that I have not done anything with. Each new scrape or scratch that happens I just try not to think about. If you use your boat a good amount they are unavoidable especially in rivers.
There’s a case for leaving it. As KPE said, pushing or hammering back may cause more problems. Loosening rivets, or possible cracking the aluminum. Aluminum doesn’t take its shape back like mild steel, once its stretched.
My Navigator was driven into a rock in a storm severely damaging the transom. All dealers and my insurance co pushed to total it. I contacted the factory, and they had a laundry list of reasons they couldn’t help. Motors, fuel, batteries shipping etc. With 40 years handling auto claims, I wasn’t buying it. Found a Alumacraft dealer 170 miles away. They removed the big motor, kicker fuel and 3 batteries. Then at the end of the model year at Alumacraft factory. The dealer loaded the boat on the semi that delivered a load of new boats and returned it to the factory. It was repaired in the factory in less than a week. But the entire process took most of the rest of fall and winter. It was better than new, as it lost the wood transom for an all-aluminum one. Probably saved me and the insurance company near $10k each not totaling it. Was happy with the repair, although the painter wouldn’t get a job in my shop. But on a fishing boat, it was fine.
Thar’s what it looked like when I hit a sunken can during spring flooding. If the boat is insured that will cover the repairs. On mine they just used some sort of filler over it to seal it up (it wasn’t leaking) and protect it. That was around 10 years ago and you can’t even tell where it was.
Never had issues with damage coming from below, it’s above that ya got to worry about.
Definitely not worth it to repair.
The amount of time and labor required to pull the interior apart and put it back together is enough to make this a no brainer for me.
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