Blisters
Terry Green
Darrin F
You are correct. Blisters are not going to sink your boat. The only time blisters make any kind of difference is when you're buying or selling a boat. Unless you have an aluminum hull, but that's a different story altogether.
The difference in performance goes completely unnoticed unless you have mount Vesuvius sized welts protruding from your hull. Likely not the case.
Should you decide to fix them, I would either grind the wetted surface of the hull down past any gelcoat, or have it peeled professionally. find your blisters and grind them out. (This will surely spray you with a vinegar smelling like ooze which will make you unhappy) unless... you really really like vinegar!
Then let the boat lay on the hard (tarped all the way to the ground if possible) for a few months in dry season.
If you wanted to spend an extra buck, you can get a surveyor to come throw a hydrometer on it to test for moisture (for a disgusting sum of money) .
Then fill the craters with alternating layers of mat and cloth. Re-fair the hull with a long board, several coats of epoxy barrier coat, then bottom paint.
That however is grossly expensive, and unnecessary if all you plan to do is sail the boat and not have it be a show piece at the boat show.
If you don't fix them, they'll get bigger and you or the next owner will eventually have to fix em. In the meantime you'll be sailing and having fun somewhere that isn't a boatyard.
The fish swimming by probably won't mind as much as a surveyor will about blisters.
-D
We my old Endeavor 32 has A LOT of blisters below the waterline especially on the Starboard side. We usually leave "Que Serra" in the water for the winter but hauled her this year to give her a chance to dry out. The blisters are still there. My inclination is to leave them alone. I've never hear of a boat sinking from blisters. Any alternative advice? Seems to be an expensive proposition in time or money.
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Donna Lange
Darrin's really 'been there' as he gave an accurate overview of
dealing with blisters. Consider yourself lucky. My boat showed no
signs of blisters when I had it surveyed but that was because the
entire hull was delaminated. I painstaking chipped the hull off and
followed Darrin's prescription down to the layers of epoxy barrier
coat. Have also seen other boats do the strip.
I think that there are some shortcuts that work. You can just grind
the individual blisters out and epoxy/adhesive filler them...you don't
have to fair it so smooth...just with sand paper...again, your not
racing. It doesn't sound like there are a that many now and only in a
limited area. It may be worth haulting the process for the ones you
have. Bob does this with his haul outs for his blisters and stays on
top of it with little effort or cost.
Thanks
D
'Inspired Insanity'
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Captain Donna Lange
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