Re: Blisters
Mac Davis (cgula@innet.com)
Wed, 27 Jan 1999 11:59:09 -0500
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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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My condolences, Ted
When I hauled my Cal 36 preparing for some offshore trips in '92, I found
exactly what you describe. After a thorough soul searching, I had the
repairs done at a San Diego yard. At that time, all of the yards were
actively engaged in this sort of work, and I got a good cross section of
professional advice. It all boiled down to:
1. Strip the gelcoat
a. If you can find an operator with a gelcoat peeler, you're better off
than having the gelcoat ground off, both in speed, damage to hull, and cost
of disposal of waste (not a problem if no bottom paint).
b. If ground off, care is essential to remove the least layup possible
2. Dry out hull
a. Hull must reach a certain level of moisture for repairs to be
effective - in my case it took 44 days to dry out; aided by sun lamps all
night long.
3. Repair any remaining deep blisters on individual basis using polyester
mat, cloth and filler
4. Fair hull using polyester filler and longboard sanding
5. Lay on 3+ (my yard used 7) coats of epoxy (wet-on-wet)
6. Repaint with bottom paint (3 coats, alternating colors in my case)
The hull is now better than new. I got a 5 year transferable no-blister
warranty - you may be able to do better.
Cost (1992) for a 26.5 foot waterline deep draft hull - $5300
Time: haul to splash 50 days
My advice is to take boat to at least 2 yards for their professional
inspection and opinion. There are books on how to do it yourself, which on
a Potter is definitely feasible - but its a messy job.
Again my condolences,
Mac Davis, Kelpie, WWP19#804, Aripeka, Fl
>> > I have seen many discussions about blisters in gelcoat and what causes
>> > them and never expected to see them on MY Potter which only spent part
>> > of last summer in the water and this year from Sept 1st until Jan 13th
>> > at the slip. When the weather finally subsided enough to pull her out
(NOW it's
>> > beautiful April weather, I could have sailed today) I had blisters.
>> > Actually I would describe them more like little pimples. Sort of like
>> > a peeble finish. They are generally over a large part of the
>> > underwater portion of the hull. Anyone ever seen
>> > anything like pimples?
>> >
>> > Ted Duke
>> > WWPs19 #626
>> > Warm mountains of Virginia
>
>