Blisters on the bottom of my 58YF

[xanadu]

Hi,

I am new to the site and recently bought a Hatteras 58YF. We outhauled her todo the bottom which had blisters and found it to be in very bad shape. We have to peel the boat and may have to do this three times to get to the bottom of the blisters. It is really bad. Can anyone tell me the layup of this boat and how thick the bottom is?

Any advice from anyone who has done this would be greatly appriciated.

Xanadu

 

[MikeP]

You don't have to do anything - ignore them. They have NO significance at all other than cosmetic on Hatteras boats of that era.

They are all well known for such blisters and, as David Pascoe (marine surveyor) said, "Hatteras should have taken a patent out on blisters." But he goes on to explain that on these Hatts they are of no significance from a structural viewpoint and can be ignored - the only time they matter is if the boat is out of the water and they are visible. It's a cosmetic issue.

If you are determined to peel the bottom, be aware that this often causes problems for boats where none existed before so be sure whoever does it knows what they are doing. The 1510 (53s/58s) hull bottom is approx 1" thick though since they were hand laid, it could be a bit thicker.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Much better NOT to peel the bottom; allow it to dry for several months, clean it up with baking soda blasting, fair it with VC Watertite or something like it, and roll on Interprotect 3000, or whatever the modern equivalent of that it. that will hold it, you'll have a decent fair bottom, and every ten years or so maybe a few more coats of IP 3000. I was advised NOT to peel the bottom of my Hatteras, and I have not regretted following that advice and doing the above procedure.

The drying is critical. It really does need to dry for months, and make sure that you do not have water inside the keel etc.

 

[MikeP]

Read the articles on this page, including those listed on the left side and you will know more about blisters than anybody except someone else who has read all the articles.

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/blisters.htm

 

[REBrueckner]

I don't know what "very bad shape" means...perhaps posting a picture or two would be useful....

If you do a search of this site you'll find the advice above, with which I generally agree, has been given in many times in many forms...boats in warm waters year round tend to have more blisters than those in colder northern waters that are hauled for several mos every year.

If you do have the boat hauled out and the blisters largely disappear, you'll know they are not serious....otherwise it's not so easy to tell.

These are hand laid up hulls with polyester resin...so the hand layup is good news because moisture does not wick as with chopper strand (from a gun) and cause structural issues but the polyester resin not so good news....it does surface blister easily.

If you do decide to take some action, research carefully BEFORE you do more harm than damage...Do not trust any single source without verification and doing some homework yourself....Unless someone knows what they are doing you may spend $10K and then have some real problems.....actually REQUIRING another $10K.

 

[xanadu]

Thank you for all of the advice. I will get pics tomorrow and post to the site but by grinding a few of the blisters it shows that the area is actually delaminated and pulled away from the hull. It is oozing a thick resin type liquid and smells like resin.

I will send pics and am interested to hear the feedback I get. The boat is in the Caribbean all year and the water temp here is average 28-30C. The work is being done by experienced contractors whose advice is to peel the bottom. I may have acted with haste and told them go ahead. What are the problems do I anticipate in this case.

 

[True Grit]

I had blisters on my bottom and they were cosmetic (i.e. in the gel coat/initial layer). The yard wanted to do an expensive peel job and after very careful consideration we opted to soft pad it down and then apply a moisture barrier and it has held up perfectly. I did a lot of research that I can pass along to you and also can provide you with the number of an excellent surveyor as well. Although, our colleagues on the forum are perhaps the greatest resource. Beware the boat yard that may try to scare you into an expensive and unnecessary repair.

Best,

TG

 

[Tim Powell]

I had blisters on my bottom and they were cosmetic (i.e. in the gel coat/initial layer). The yard wanted to do an expensive peel job and after very careful consideration we opted to soft pad it down and then apply a moisture barrier and it has held up perfectly. I did a lot of research that I can pass along to you and also can provide you with the number of an excellent surveyor as well. Although, our colleagues on the forum are perhaps the greatest resource. Beware the boat yard that may try to scare you into an expensive and unnecessary repair.

Best,


TG

If you plan to do a bottom job which i would not reckomend at all.Further plan to do the expensive peeling process plan to leave the boat out of the watter for a minum of 2 to 3 months so it will dry out between layer. If you put the bayer coat on weather it is 1 ,2 or 3 coats all you doing is sealing the watter in unless you let it dry out.
I have kept my boat at a yard and every time i see a dottom job done on a hat it will come back eventually unless it is dryed out befor the coats are applied
If it is not delaminating and the blisters are no bigger than a quater keep your money in your pocket. But from your post you have already peeled it so be sure you let it dry out befor you put the bayer coats on..Good luck Tim

 

[Fanfare]

About every 25 years it seems I need the barrier coat renewed. My blisters started reappearing about five years ago and I was told to peel the bottom. This was also a way to remove old soft bottom paint which had built up over the years. Filled six large garbage bags with old paint, couple hundred pounds worth. Two barrier coats followed by Micron 66 and no more blisters after three or four years now. Just make sure they slather on the barrier coats. I should remember the name of the barrier, but I'm drawing a blank.

At this rate it looks like I will run out of bottom in four more centuries, but I think I'll let someone else worry about that.

 

[yachtsmanbill]

The bottom on the 58 TC is 3/4". I installed a Disesa drain in front of each engine bay, plus a bay drain so that during fall haulout, I can pull the plugs and wash all the bilge Gagootz off the boat. The first 32 years worth had to get washed and vacuumed... NO MORE!
Next to the bay drain is the packing bay drain that runs inder the engine bay. ws

 

[REBrueckner]

"It is oozing a thick resin type liquid and smells like resin."

That is typical of any moisture intrusion I have observed...so I don't think that by itself means anything....How big are the largest blisters you ground out and what "delamination" did you observe....?? In other words, can you describe what you observed....

And I agree with comments above,,,get an independent verification if you can....Was the bottom surveyed when you bought the boat???
almost any yard will advise you to get such expensive bottom work done because even if they ARE experts in repair and think they are doing the right thing, it protects them and of course they like to get the work....

 

[yachtsmanbill]

Cleaned and painted... ws

engine bay drain

Disesa plug with yet to be attached bonding wire

 

[rsmith]

I saw a guy using one of those shavers go right thru the bottom of a 55 Ocean Yacht. they are only about 3/8 thick or less. They didnt even know it until I walked over at lunchtime and stuck my pocket knife thru the hull. they fixed it with a build up of thickend epoxy. The owner was one of those guys that shows up in his new Lexus barks a couple orders and leaves. I tried to tell him about it but he was a big ex-spurt that hired the "best". Yeah buddy you better bend over if you own one of these clorox bottles and arn't hands on.

 

[Boatsb]

I was grinding blisters on an ocean 42 and saw the oil pan. It was funny when the owner told me it couldn't be because they were such well built boats.

I also watched some peel Rogers's 52 ( shark1007) and he did a great job. I am not a proponent of grinding or peeling unless the hull is like a golf ball and this one was. It now looks great. It was done by a guy who does this every day.

 

[xanadu]

Well from what we are seeing the blisters are the size of a tennis ball in diameter and the actual glass for 3 inches around that is raised in many but not all of the blisters. It would seem that an epoxy barrier was laid onto the bottom without the hull being properly dried by the previous owner.

The workers doing the job are experienced and it every day. I have seen all of the work they have done as I manage the boat yard that we are outhauled at and so I am getting the job at a very special cost and I know they are not just doing it to get rich quick and looking out for me as well. I am being advised from several of the companies that handle this type of work and they all say its bad.

I did not get the surveyor to check the bottom before and really got the boat at a deal and drove her down from the nothern caribbean. Everything is working perfectly on the boat and engines in great shape. I guess I just trusted that once it had blisters the bottom should have been done and we started as it was out of the water. Having heard all of the above comments I am feeling as if I have opened a can of worms and not the type I can use to go fishing.

 

[True Grit]

Wow .... tennis ball size blisters are an issue. I think the protocol you suggested makes sense.

TG

 

[jim rosenthal]

The problem with peeling the outer layer of the hull layup is that you have to replace it with something. Someone will have to make sure that the remaining hull structure is VERY DRY (which will take months, and again, make certain that the inside of the boat is dry- water inside the keel etc will wick through and make the outer layer damp, and anything applied to it won't stick)

After the hull is thoroughly dried and verified to be so, the hull has to be relaminated with cloth and resin to replace what was removed. Since turning a completed boat upside down to work on it isn't possible, this has to be done from underneath and is a difficult job to say the least. Not impossible, but difficult.

The outer layer of gelcoat does not contain cloth; the gelcoat would have been sprayed into the mold and then the laminate begun inside the gelcoat layers. And I think Hatteras used two layers of gelcoat at least. If only the gelcoat is peeled, it can be replaced with interprotect 3000 or something similar.

But I don't know how deep your blisters are. If the job is done carefully and well, with appropriate drying time (and sometimes the boat has to be tented, with dehumidifiers and fans to speed up the drying) and good products carefully applied, you should be fine. I don't think there's much chance of someone peeling through the hull and your looking at the oil pans. Hatteras Yachts are built to much better scantlings than an Ocean Yacht, and better than most Bertrams, IMHO. Mostly I think you're going to have some time and rather a lot of money tied up in all of it.

 

[Boatnut]

FWIW, I had my 42C planed off and relaminated. That was 15 years ago, and no new blisters, or bottom problems, yes it is expensive but in my case well worth it for the peace of mind. I must have read 100 articles about blisters, there seems to be a reasons for the cause as there are days in the year. I did not like having them, especially the larger ones with liquid in them. If you plane them off, as said before dry it out good, have it relamenated and barrier coat it when done. If you they don't bother you and you're only going to keep the boat for a few years, then doing it may not be the answer, given the recent thoughts on how to address them.

 

[saltshaker]

Sounds like you are doing the right thing. I don't think you opened a can of worms. Hatteras blisters are typically no big deal. They also rarely get larger than the size of a quarter. If you have very large blisters that are oozing, you need to address it. This can be due to a prior bad bottom job. Sounds like they opened up the bottom and didn't properly finish it. Once the damage is done you have to fix it right or you will end up with serious problems. From what you are describing, I would open up the bottom, let it dry out for a month or two, then tent the bottom and place several dehumidifiers under there for another month to really dry it out. Make sure the bilges are dry and open every were you can get a hatch up. Keep the interior dry also. This is how it is done up here in cold climates over the winter layup. You might get better result a bit faster down there were its hot, just make sure you keep the humidity down.

 

[Diver Down]

Xanadu, what is the year and hull number of your YF?