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Blistered gel coat

Boatally Insane

Boatally Insane

Member
I lifted my boat off of the trailer so I could sand the bottom to get another 1/8 mph out of it and much to my surprise there were blisters in the gel coat where the boat sits on the carpeted trailer bunks

Has anyone else had this happen???

I was able to sand out the majority of the ones on the keel before I ran out of sandpaper, but I still have a bunch more from the bunk farther up....

What can I do to stop this from happening again????



Thanks,


Doug
 
Does your boat stay in the water for long periods of time? Here is a link to my predictor overhaul. I had major blisters on the bottom. The only way to truely get rid of them is to take all the gelcoat off.I used a Barrier coat primer that is designed specifically for protection against blisters.



http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1471


Hey Tyson,
His signature says he has got a 93' 230 Enforcer
 
tyson1198 said:
what kind of mate do you have?
I dont have an answere for the blisters sorry
Click to expand...

It's a 1993 230 Enforcer...


Adam L. said:
Does your boat stay in the water for long periods of time?
Click to expand...

As far as I know it's NEVER been left in the water at all...Only 245 original hours on the boat...It had 140 on it when I bought it in '04 so it's obviously spent a LOT of time on the trailer......Thanks for the link, I'll check it out....


Doug
 
Sorry Boatally..............but my reading on blisters supports Adam L.'s remedy. "Gelcoat off." A year ago I researched the gelcoat manufacturers fixup sites to determine the remedy to blisters and the workload, but I discarded the links....sorry. It is a big job beyond my simple capabilities. There are allot of experts on the website who have more know-how than me. Maybe they will help.
 
I talked to Mike at Checkmate about it and he said to simply sand them down.......

Obviously that isn't the CORRECT way to fix it........




Doug
 
Sounds like the boat was sitting wet carpet. (they all do don't they) But what you have found out is your boat is particularly suseptable to "blistering" and it is a sample of what the entire bottom of your boat would look like if you left it in the water.


Sanding them down will work for a while. But the best repair will be to remove all the bad gel, and replace it.
 
Do Nothing

ALL fiberglass boats will blister in contact with carpeted bunks. The bunks get wet every time you launch and retrieve the boat, then the hull sits on the wet carpet for LONG periods of time, allowing osmotic blistering. If a boat sits in the water for long periods of time, a much larger area of the hull will blister. It's NORMAL (unfortunately) water penetration of the gel coat. Some hulls will blister more than others, no way to predict. You can spend a LOT of time and effort to remove the blisters, to try to prevent the blisters, or even just cover up the blisters to varying degrees of success.

I wouldn't worry about it or spend a single dime on those blisters unless they get deep enough or large enough to cause loss of integrity of a large area of the bottom. I had blisters on my '95 Persuader because the previous owner left it sit in the water all summer. The blisters got no worse in the 3 years that I owned the boat as a trailer-boater. My Pulsare and Pulse both had blisters under the bunk areas of the trailer and the boat lift. Those blisters showed up and then never got any worse or caused any hull problems.

Just keep an eye on them when possible. If any get worse, then do something about it. Otherwise, you're fighting an expensive battle you'll never really win.
 
JW said:
Just keep an eye on them when possible. If any get worse, then do something about it. Otherwise, you're fighting an expensive battle you'll never really win.
Click to expand...

That's kindof what I was thinking after reading how to fix it...
The blisters weren't causing any problems when I didn't know they were there...

Who knows, maybe a blistered hull would provide some added lift...lol

Thanks,


Doug


P.S. I'm on a mission....1 more mph before I put it away for the winter... I've been stuck at 79mph for tooooo long....
 
Ya, if its not as bad as this:
boatrest040.jpg


I would say just live with it. Coop and JW are right on the trailer bunks and lift bunks. My dads Eliminator sits on a lift and it has developed a small amout of blisters, but its nothing that is cause for alarm. Nobody will every see them if they are on the bottom. when they creap up the sides all the way to the water line like mine did, then you might want to think about doing something about it.


Oh and if you are trying to get 1more mph out of it. I hear that sanding the bottom with 600 grit will help. I havent tried it but I have read about it on scream and fy.
 
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