Hatteras bubbles

Bumps is more like it. In the decks. When I bought Esperanza I noticed a raised 3-5" bump in the cockpit floor. Looked underneath and no sign of anything. Figured that since Capt. Dave didn't mention it that it was just a less then perfect repair job. Year or so later a guy with a 52 the same vintage asked me to look at his deck. He has a bubble on either side of the cockpit same area as where Mine is. We both have no idea. Neither his nor mine ever changed in size and none sound hollow.

A few weeks ago I notices a bubble under my stb side front cleat. Uh-Oh! but it is solid sounding. May have always been like this and I just noticed as the sun was going down. So I go to investigate today and try to drill up with a 1/8" bit to see if there is wet wood but that's a no go. Huge aluminum backing plate imbedded in the glass. I guess I will pull it off and re-bed the cleat and bolts. If it's wet on top I'll figure out a way to dry it out. But maybe not. Anyone have insight on this? 1983 vintage.

If there’s no water in the core, you may have delamination from the core to the fiberglass, or you may have delamination between the fiberglass. Get a good moisture meter. And verify you don’t have any cord damage. If it’s just the lamination, that’s an easy fix with a couple of small holes and fill with epoxy

A moisture meter will not work where there is a big aluminum plate under it. That plate will peg the meter.

i have seen the aluminum plates that hatteras moulded into the glass start corroding and make the glass bubble up..on my 46c it was around the top of the ladder to the bridge, on my 58yf it is around some of the rail bases.

I have had the same experience. It will eventually split the fiberglass. I cut the skin out and replaced the core . The core was still solid. I used a new aluminum plate as I didn’t want to break a tap if I put a stainless plate in there. Probably the stanchions should have been re bedded as sealants only last about 9 to 10 years. I had to do this in three places, one stanchion had been moved and didn’t have a plate under it .