[C320-list] Catalina 320 spun-bound polyester

[Yaman Battikhi]

I have recently purchased a Catalonia 320 year 93 boat that require some work  and yes it is a beauty. I do have few questions regarding a structure fix for this boat. 

I have noticed  a long bottom paint crack about one foot in length on the hull  below the  through-hull of the waist tank. This is located  on the starboard side mid ship. As  I decided to investigate , i stripped  out the bottom paint and everything in between to reach the laminated fiber glass of the hull. To my surprise I noticed that I am up against a special material of one inch thick that I have to take off in order to reach the laminated fiber glass. Well after making  a mountain of dust using a grinder all around me  I finally reached the laminated fiber and I could still see a seam on the laminated fiber, so I am guessing this boat took a hit or got grounded even though the laminated does not seam to be cracked, just a thin line.

 I know my next step is to take off some of the laminated to see how deep is this crack and try to fix this accordingly but my question is what is this material  made of and how  in the world I can get it  once I fix the laminated structure damage? And if I replace it with epoxy would it stick to it ?  I found an article mentioning about spun-bound polyester fabric incorporated in some areas for the cataline 320. I am woundering if that is it or if someone did a quick fix to a serious problem in the hull by using this material to cover it up although I did dig a hole on the port  side and the same material was present.  

Unfortunately I do not know the history of the boat as I got this boat when it was in the storage a few month ago. I actually noticed this crack while I was fixing the through-hull for the waist tank which has an apparent leak and it happen to be  located above the original crack. I knew that this part was leaking because I can see from the inside that  the backing plat of the through-hull was delaminated so I had to strip that off and sure enough the diameter of the through hull was smaller than the diameter of the hull fiber glass circle :I guess someone have just added more sealant to cover up the slack (brilliant idea) and back it with fiber glass from the inside. The through-hull is of a racing type and I could see a hole in the sealant once I stripped out the backing fiber plate. 


I will add more pictures regarding this to better explain myself. 

On another topic I also noticed that my bilge area is been re-done and there were some delineations around  the keel area and it appear that some pieces were taking off (please see picture below). I would really appreciate if someone could send me a picture of the bilge area so that I can compare it what what I got 


So to summarize my questions :

1- What is this 1inch thick material made off , is it spun-bound polyester fabric? (I will send pictures soon)

2- Where can I get it from and can I be able to do it myself? 

3- Would it be okay if I use epoxy to cover it up instead? 

4- Any one have a picture for the bilge area I need to compare it to mine? Please send it to me if you can 


Thank you all 

Yam