How to fix a small crack

I found a small crack in the weld near where the winch attaches to the eye bolt. It's a flat bottom boat with a square bow. The crack is the transition near the eye bolt where it goes from a more vertical section to a more horizontal section. It is a very narrow crack but about 4-6 inches long.
Is there a good way to fix this without taking it to a welder. I've read people mention JB weld, 5200, etc. Any other suggestions?

That needs to be welded, otherwise every time you winch the boat onto the trailer the crack will get worse.

is it possible to reinforce the bow from the inside
with a piece of aluminum or 2x4 ? Just to keep
it from getting worse. (temp fix).

Would need to be welded for the best results, like Johnny said for a while you could get by with a backup plate on the inside of some sort, get a piece .125 / 1/8'' alum rivet or bolt it with some s.s. 10x32 screws 2'' on center, bolts can be replaced with rivets at a later date,,.first drill out the ends of the crack to stop it from cracking further ,, before you start use a stainless wire brush and clean the back side of the crack of any paint so it would be ready to weld at a later date,,,, what ever you do don't try any glue, makes it real had to weld later, a back up plate will help reinforce the bow after welding ,,, if you were to bring something like that into our shop would charge around 30 bucks if it were all cleaned up and ready to weld ...

If you can get to the inside of that area you can put a backing plate behind the eye which will reinforce it for next time, but if it's already that large of a crack, you really should get it welded and then add the reinforcing to prevent it from happening again in the future.

It had a piece of angle iron on the backside. I don't know if that is a standard from the factory thing or not. I assume it should have something there other than the thin aluminum. I was planning to put a piece of angle aluminum there, say maybe a foot or so long. I'll look around a little and see where I can find someone to weld aluminum. I was hoping I could get away with something other than welding.

grover said:

It had a piece of angle iron on the backside. I don't know if that is a standard from the factory thing or not. I assume it should have something there other than the thin aluminum. I was planning to put a piece of angle aluminum there, say maybe a foot or so long. I'll look around a little and see where I can find someone to weld aluminum. I was hoping I could get away with something other than welding.

Click to expand...

IMO, If it was steel, you can pretty much count on that being done by a previous owner. The factory wouldn't use steel because that could cause dissimilar metal issues. A beefy piece of large aluminum angle 12-18" would probably do the job. Just make sure it is placed so that the bow eye bolts through the added angle.