Repairing chips in a boat hull

What's the best way to fill chips on the hull? The ones that go about 1/8" deep and you can see the fiberglass mesh underneath. I'm asking about a partial repair not a complete paint and gel coat or whatever. Just to plug those holes in a durable way that will also get it one step closer to doing a complete job at a later date.

Thanks hau. I never used thickener with epoxy. Does it bring the epoxy to the consistency of putty so it can be worked with a squeegee and doesn't run? Should I use the fastest hardener?

You mean something like this?

Hace años que no oigo mencionar la cotonesa :thumbsup1:

I learned a few things doing this work. I was trying to apply the resulting putty in such a way as to minimize sanding after. I didn't really know what gelcoat is and was worried about having to sand it. Turns out it's just plastic. Similar to any other kind of patch work it's better to apply the putty somewhat liberally and then sand it down. The different grades of sand paper bring the gelcoat to an almost original glossy finish.

I didn't like using the epoxy thickener. I think I had to use so much thickener to get the mixture to the right consistency that it will effect the strength of the epoxy. Another issue was that I didn't use coloring because I thought the thickening powder was going to dry white. It actually dries to a beige color. Since repairing the chips was mostly a matter of cosmetics it kinda defeated the purpose. I already had the west marine epoxy and hardener from before so it made sense to proceed this way and just buy the thickener. For future repairs however I would use a kit they sell for the same price as just the thickener. It requires minimum mixing and dries white.