Is your bottom blistered?

[captddis]

My 46C 1982 developed the "eraser" blisters all over at about 8 year mark. The previous owner had a peel job done in 1997 and no blisters since. The boat was out of the water for 8 months drying out!

[Boatsb]

Ive seen the peel and the blast of the eraser blisters. I think the peel is a bit extreme unless you have a deeper penetration than just the gelcoat. Blasting and fairing has been the standard for most boats that do not have deep penetrations. If done right it should remain waterproof forever as long as you bring it down to the barrier coat and add another 2 coats or so every 10 years. I have not seen anyone balk at that as a maintenance item yet. It also helps to keep the paint buildup to a minimum. We have a boat near me ( post ) peeling the hull today and it is definitely a worse blister problem than most Hatts I have seen. Even the best yards with the $20-40K peels have to take far longer and spend more time in fairing the buildup if they are going to bring the hull shape back to smooth and not wavy. With Filling and fairing the hull profile is never changed.

[Tiboron]

Best thread title ever!

[Canuck Dennis]

1973 DC 43 ft.

I bought 3 yrs ago, sanded the bum, about 30 25c sized blisters, used 3m watertite, reprimed the bottom..so far all clean.

[captddis]

Ive seen the peel and the blast of the eraser blisters. I think the peel is a bit extreme unless you have a deeper penetration than just the gelcoat. Blasting and fairing has been the standard for most boats that do not have deep penetrations. If done right it should remain waterproof forever as long as you bring it down to the barrier coat and add another 2 coats or so every 10 years. I have not seen anyone balk at that as a maintenance item yet. It also helps to keep the paint buildup to a minimum. We have a boat near me ( post ) peeling the hull today and it is definitely a worse blister problem than most Hatts I have seen. Even the best yards with the $20-40K peels have to take far longer and spend more time in fairing the buildup if they are going to bring the hull shape back to smooth and not wavy. With Filling and fairing the hull profile is never changed.

To each his own. Peeling is far faster and it removes all of the old gelcoat and mat that caused the problem in the first place. Almost all of the failed blister jobs I have seen has been the failure of the fill and fairing that was used.

Wavy bottoms? I don't see how peeling or filling and fairing is going to cause a wavy bottom if done properly. YMMV.

[Barry Lunn]

I am now in the middle of doing a bottom job on a 1963 34dc. After removing 48 years of bottom paint found 2 golf ball size blisters on the keel and about a dozen eraser size on the remainder of the hull. All have been repaired and now comes the barrier coat. I think that is a pretty good showing for a boat of that age.

[lumina]

Hi All,

Yes, we have blisters, most the size of a pencil eraser, some as big as a dime and a few as big as a quarter. They are here and there, most of the hull is free of them . The only cluster is the port bow.

When she was surveyed the verdict was superficial "normal" Hatteras blisters. Everyone seemed to concur and given the strength and thickness of the hull I accepted it. That was almost 5 years ago. After bringing her up from FL to Ma waters there has been no change.

In 5 years I've seen one or two matchstick holes appear and drip a couple of tear drops of water after haul out. I cleaned them out, they end up being the size of a pencil head. They got painted in the spring and all has been good.

The original blisters almost look as if a "pimple" was burst and left in its place was an eighth or two eights inch deep creator. They are always completely dry after the boat is hauled out.

My guys and I have never found any significant new blisters, nor have we seen any suspected delamination. What we've sounded sounds fine. Whenever we've done thru-hull work all looks fine.

Now, that said, we've been trying to figure out the bottom of this boat since we bought her.
We think the prior owner did something but we're not sure what. The reason for this conundrum
will be evident in the pictures. Under the boot stripe to the chine the bottom paint is thick, maybe 3/8 ths but the bottom of the boat seems to only have a couple of coats. I say that because if some paint chips off you see what I think is the gel coat or barrier coat etc.

As I said earlier, the blisters appear to have been cleaned out years ago and are dry.

It's almost as if they had the bottom lightly blasted but didn't bother with the area below the boot stripe to the chine, and didn't bother to fill the blisters after blasting but maybe just barrier coated it and just painted it.

I've asked our yard to give it an evaluation and may have it done over the winter although if nothing turns up it might be a waste of money that could be allocated to a bunch of other stuff.

Picture one is port amidships (largest one)
Picture two is the cluster in the port bow (been just like that since we bought it 5 years ago)
Picture three is the tiny matchstick hole after I cleaned it out
Picture four is the matchstick hole
Picture five is whats under the alblative on 90% of the hull

[lumina]

More Pics

[captddis]

It has been sandblasted. That is what causes the pock marks. Does not look like it has been barrier coated.

[saltshaker]

Best thread title ever!

Pun intended.