i have a hole in my bow where water has sat and made the wood soggy, its about 4 inch long and 4 inch deep, and is on both sides with the stem also affected.
i want to do a quick repair on it but not a complete bodge job, i was thinking of using fibre glass mat and epoxy resin on the inside and then just filling with epoxy filler on the outside and then sanding flush.
does this sound feasible and if so does anyone know of cheap epoxy used in the building trade etc to do it with or is it best to use west etc systems

Would suggest you do it properly ie cut away the affected plank in that area, cutting an inch or so back into the good timber & glue the new piece of wood in with epoxy. You dont need to be over skillful with epoxy as any small irregularities will be filled by the epoxy; slapping glass on the inside & filling it will be messy & just a time consuming. Most good chandlers do a 'small repair pack with all you need and its often as quick to do a proper job than a bodge.You could get away with a 50/60mm scarf. 15/30 mins each side.
Remember it's a Merlin Rocket not a Merlin Bodgit. Regards Barry.

thanks for reply barry,
just a couple more questions as my wood work skills are somewhat lacking-
1)i like the idea of replacing with wood but the affected area goes into another plank will this make this method harder to do.
2) do you have to support the new bit of wood by glassing on the inside of it or will the wood and glue be strong enough.
3)i didnt understand the bit about scarfing and 15/30 mins each side, can you explain a bit more (im good with steel clueless with wood)
4) as the planks that are damaged attach to the stem i assume this is quite a high stress area will it need extra strength.
5) is normal plywood ok to use for repair.
thanks in anticipation

Hi no problem you can let in smaller pieces of the lower plank if no more than 40/50mm depth,once you get past 1/2 the width of the plank you start thinking of the whole thing.By removing the wet plank up to the stem post you have an easy point to fix that end of the new one ( straight into the rebalt the original came out of) The other end the 'scarf' is basically a taper going from full plank width 6mm to zero over 50/60mm or so (the boat was probably built with scarfs of anything up to 200mm but all boatbuilders had thier theories)
You then need a matching scarf on the existing plank. then it's just a case of some subtle sanding to the edges(lands) to match the boat. Do a dry (glueless) fix & hold in place with small steel screws then when happy mix your glue add some fillers powders to a ice cream consistancy and fix in place. Leave screws in overnight then remove & fill with more epoxy, clean up when dry & paint to finish .
The boat shouldnt move at all with only the one small plank removed, if the deck was off & she was partically soft then you would need to truss her up but if thats the case you would want someone to check her out first hand. There are some usefull pictures on this site titled 'Laurie Smith' under the professional build / repair heading. I hope this helps if in any doubt get some local guys to look at it and advise you, Regards Barry. 
ps WBP or marine ply.

thanks for that barry, will let you know how i get on