I have a 2011 WX 1850 and when wiping it down last week I noticed the fiberglass showing stress cracks in the hull. This boat is 2 years old and to be honest I never expected to find something like this. On top of the stress cracks in the hull there are numerous other ones throughout the boat but this is the most alarming. What do you guys think about this? Is skeeter going to repair this? Please point me in the right direction. //Derrick//
Might be explained away with only cracks in the gel-coat versus internal layers but sure would like to hear how Skeeter handles this. My immediate concern would be resale value.
Keep us posted with their response please. Good Luck!
We can give you a bunch of opinions, but if you wanna know for sure get a hold of a Skeeter dealer. 
It will be covered by skeeter for warranty as long as it isnt caused by an impact. If it wasnt caused by an impact we would have to do a little more digging of why it may have a stress crack coming from there.
From the pictures I can see it appears to only be a gel coat crack.
I sent Brent and Dean an email with this information and the pictures are easier to see on there vs here on the forum. There hasn’t been any impacts against anything other than the water. I noticed after this weekend it seems to be spreading though.
The cracks may get longer or a few more might show up in the general area once they have started. If the cracks start to open up is when the concern would be.
Any skeeter dealer should be able to handle that for you, otherwise we would be more than willing to help if we can!!
That’s enough to keep me away if that is from water only!
Sometimes things happen but yes this boat has never hit anything in the water. I haven’t seen this happen before and my father in law has an 1880 which he absolutely loves and hasn’t had any of the fiberglass issues that i’m having. The guys at Skeeter Boat Center were very quick to make contact with me and get the process started on figuring out what is going on in my case. They run a top notch operation and once I decide to sell this boat I will be purchasing a WX2190 from them as well. Any manufacturer can have a flaw when they produce so much of a certain product.
I have seen this before on a 2050ZX deep v skeeter boat, I used this boat for a day trip to mille lacs it was a friend of mines boat. When I returned the boat to him after I had cleaned entire boat top to bottom, he called about 4 days later and said he had something to show me so I went over to his house and to my surprise the entire port side of boat was full of gel stress cracks, long story short is that they fixed issue on his boat after a month and a half later and now his stringers have let loose on his floor we will see what happens with that…they told him the gel coat was to thick on that side thats the reason for stress cracking, not a expert on fiberglass but just made me wonder….Goodluck
Please let us know as this progresses. I am definately interested in one of these boats and it immediately won me over as me dream boat, but if this is going to be a problem with them then I will have to go another route. MY budd bought a Supra wake board boat and had this same issue and the company completely dodged them and blamed it on him for abuse of the boat 4 months after purchase.
I think it’s pretty clear nobody is dodging anybody. With any sort of claim it needs to be determined what the cause is. Once it’s found then the remedy / repair process begins.
I can honestly say this is only the second boat I have seen or heard of in the 5 years that I have been heavily involved with skeeters with this issue. By no means would I call this a normal issue.
Like I mentioned earlier and others have mentioned, until someone can actually look at the boat and dig into it we wont know the cause nor the fix to the issue.
Also like I mentioned as long as it wasnt caused by an impact (which you will be able to tell) it will be covered under warranty!
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Also like I mentioned as long as it wasnt caused by an impact (which you will be able to tell) it will be covered under warranty!
Eric – can you explain more precisely what your referring to when you say “impact”?
Yes, I’m another one of those guys looking at Skeeter for my next boat so this issue is of great interest. I’m very glad to hear its not a common issue.
I’ve run enough boats to know that the bow will impact waves extremely hard at times. I’m assuming your not talking about that kind of impact but perhaps a rock or log or something of that nature.
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I’m assuming your not talking about that kind of impact but perhaps a rock or log or something of that nature.
Eric is talking about impacts with a floating object, dock, log or other boat and not with waves/water.
The type of cracks the OP is seeing are not structural and are likely due to gel coat that was applied too thick. Fiberglass hulls flex and shift a bit under load (one of the reasons, in addition to hull design difference, they ride better than tin hulls) and if the outer gel coat is too rigid or stiff it can crack when the underlying fiberglass moves when running at high speeds in rough conditions, etc.
As Eric pointed out Skeeter will be all over this under warranty and it is a very straightforward fix.
James beat me too it but he pretty much covered everything. The fiberglass warranty is lifetime on the hull. That being said its still a “common sense” warranty. You cant beach your boat at WOT on a wing dam and expect it to be covered under warranty because it cracked. Basically if something happens that wasnt caused by the operator(under “normal” operation) that causes cracks or anything it will be covered.
Being in the industry even the short time that I have, I would have to say Skeeter is the best and easiest to work with as far as warranty claims and customer satisfaction based on what I have heard and dealt with through other dealers and also from customers.
Long story short here, yes it will be covered under warranty with out having to jump through a bunch of hoops and get drug out. It will be very simple and pretty painless for all involved to get this fixed.
Good to know!
Thanks for the quick response James & Eric.
I would be interested to hear how this handled. Because what your saying is contractdictory to what skeeters warranty says.
Either way i hope it gets fixed.
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I would be interested to hear how this handled. Because what your saying is contractdictory to what skeeters warranty says.
Either way i hope it gets fixed.
Can you more specific as to was is contradictory?
Thanks,
FDR
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I would be interested to hear how this handled. Because what your saying is contractdictory to what skeeters warranty says.
Either way i hope it gets fixed.
Can you more specific as to was is contradictory?
Thanks,
FDR
Here’s the Skeeter Warranty online. This version is from 2011. I have no idea if anything has changed.
http://www.skeeterboats.com/my_boat/
After reading it through in one area it says its covered. In another… I’m not so sure.
One thing I do know, if the guys at SBC say this kind of thing is covered, its covered.
Got it. I believe I found what Gwood is speaking of.
Thanks,
FDR
Structural damage, caused by manufactures build process is different than the gel coat cracking. Skeeter’s warranty is for the fiberglass, not for the gel coat.
Maybe the dealer will just handle it. Maybe Skeeter will step up and take care of it. I just hope his 2 year old boat is taken care of. I know that when I am buying a boat or any other thing if somebody tells me the hull has a ten year warranty. I will assume that includes ALL of the hull and not just the middle layer.
ND Skeeter, Get in touch with Bob at Gibbon’s Fiberglass Repair in Bismarck at (701)224-0656. He’ll look over your cracking issue, provide you with a quote and most likely work through your dealer and Skeeter to get it fixed. Myself and another buddy had fiberglass work done to our Skeeter’s in the past at Gibbon’s. The process was smooth and the repairs turned out great and have held up over time.
I would like to know how this turned out. Please let me know!
The boat is getting fully repaired at the factory. No out of pocket expenses for the customer.
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