Tower- reinforcement

Have a 94 Ski Nautique with a new dimensions tower. Has some stress cracks around the front tower legs. Going to grind and repair the gel but want to reinforce underneath. I have some 1708 biax leftover from a previous project. Planned to use 3 to 4 layers to add some strength. Thought was to cut in circles and use smaller diameter for each layer. Will that do the job? Any suggestions appreciated. Thank you.

Are there metal plates on the bottom side of the tower for support? It sandwiches the glass in between the two pieces of metal.

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As previously mentioned the tower was intended to be installed with a chamfered edge on the holes on the top side to keep the gelcoat from stress cracking. On the bottom side the original surface would have been quite uneven, some wood reinforcements are in those areas mostly to allow something to drill the wire holders into. Additionally it is unfinished glass and generally no care would be taken to smooth or sand any imperfections. The tower came with long strand fiberglass reinforced polyester body filler commonly referred to as kitty hair, and aluminum backing plates. The intent was to load up a bunch of kitty hair place the backing plate over it and lightly tighten up the tower before it set to provide a flat uniform surface to squeeze between the two plates. If this wasn't done you would likely stress the deck and see cracks. Take a look and see what is going on – if there is already filler oozing out the sides of the backing plates then it won’t be easy to pull off the backing plate or apply a few layers of glass.   If there is no kitty hair filler then I would do that. I have a new dimensions tower on an 83 ski nautique that I have been running for 10 years with heavy ass gear and speakers, on what I would consider a rough water lake for a ski boat, I drive it fast and pull plenty of multiples – it was installed according to directions with no additional glassing and there are NO cracks or weakening of the hull.

Looks like some 4200 under the plate.

Listen to Joe- Remove the screws and evaluate the holes. I bet they aren't chamfered. That is very important with all screws in gel. If that isn't done, the movement of the screw creates spider cracks. Once that is done, you can sandwich blocking under the deck if you want to.

Fix the gel, the holes, then the backing below. If the holes aren't chamfered, the brittle gel will spider crack again.