Stripping the Bottom , Then What?

[Scott]

Are you saying that barrier coat is a must?

Have I just been lucky?? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Naturally not all boats will suffer from this and no you don’t have to do anything … but there is no way (that I’m aware ) that you can tell if it will or wont happen. Environment, time in the water, fabricating materials will play their roles differently.
i.e. Poly resins allow water to pass , vinylesters a bit less , Epoxies better yet ... Water temps etc

Me personally …with a freshly stripped hull , or a never before painted hull that was going to get bottom paint …and will spend a lot of time in the water….now’s the time to do it. It’s a preventative measure to slow or stop water permeation into the glass and its cheap insurance !! Given the cost of boats, engines, fuel, slips ….. this is pocket change. Some bottom paints cost more than what’s needed to coat a small boat.

Having a boat fixed that has a blister problem is a headache (Lots of labor) …and done professionally can cost big time … I’m not talking a couple spots …Hundreds if not thousands of blisters … Those pockets (blisters) are separations in the gel coat and laminates of the hull… this is, in a sense, small scale delamination ...They did a TV show on this that the boat was so bad they had to strip the boat right down to the fiberglass laminate !!! I wouldn’t want to guess what that would cost. Just from a resale perspective I certainly wouldn’t want to buy or at the very least give anywhere near top dollar for a boat suffering from this …. People walk away from boats that have osmotic blistering... just something I would not want to see on a boat survey.

I guess I’m very pro to barrier coating after seeing a few boats that I personally knew go through this process …The worst was a 31 Bertram the other a 35 …. Its not a pretty sight to see the hull pocked up with thousands of blisters ….They spent a lot of time in the yard getting fixed.

just my opinion [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]