Recently purchased a used 1997 ZX202C.
Just discovered a very strange issue I've never even heard of.
I haven't hit anything I've been very careful with the boat on all my outings since I purchased it (2-3 weeks ago).
Brought it home tonight and took the cover off and there's a 3 inch long fiberglass crack on the pontoon...the weird part is, is its oozing out little water drops, or I assume it's water. This wasn't there when I bought it. The liquid it's oozing smells VERY bad like tar mixed with mildew and resin. Very strong smell.
I stuck a shop vac on it to try to get it to stop leaking, but it keeps dripping.
Could this have been an old repair spot that's starting to deteriorate?
It's not deep either. I keep it covered and in the shade and the cracked area is covered when the cover is on.
Not soft, or too lumpy

That looks like impact damage.

You hit something and busted the fiberglass. How that came about depends on where on the boat the damage is and what you've banged into. You do not have to break all the way through the hull layers (such that water fills the bilge) to have a serious problem for your boat.

Fiberglass hulls are laminated layers. Once you puncture the outer hull layer, even just partially, water will seep into the dead space in the layer laminations. In other words, water can go into the crack, then turn 90 degrees and weep along the voids between layers. Water goes in (under pressure) a lot easier than it comes out (gravity drain), and will cause further delamination and damage if not corrected. The dripping is water attempting to drain from the voids in the lamination layers. Water that has been in there a while will become stagnant and begin to stink. If water gets to wood in the hull via the lamination damage, it will begin to rot, increasing the seriousness of your problem and the smell.

That looks to me like it was repaired before and somehow it opened up again for some reason, hit something?, If theres water dripping out of it might should inspect the rest of the transom for water intrusion and possible rot, I think those year model skeeters still had wood in them.

You can put a heat lamp on it and cook the water out of it http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...om#Post12149280

Def looks like impact damage.

Yep, looks like either the boat backed into something or something ran into it.

Maybe someone ran into it...
how should I go about fixing it

Fiberglass shop is the more expensive solution, marine-tex is the cheaper one, need to make sure its dried out if water is dripping from it.

Professional fiberglass shop.....

$$$ Sh_____ happens

Dam,

^^^^^^ this. Did you notice this before you bought it? The pics look like 2 different areas, maybe it's the angles. honestly I wouldnt play around with that one, take it to a fiberglass shop for professional repair.

Is that a cover-up of damage? Did you scrape this off to see the crack?

That honestly looks like a half [censored] repair that failed.....if I were you I would have issue checked by a professional, and if that's the case I would be after the seller

How about backing off a few feet and taking a good picture with good light?