Blisters

[Capt.Frank]

I Know blisters were covered before. I have all the blister ground out but my bottom gelcote looks like chicken poxs. Some have told me that I need to roll epoxy over the hole bottom before barrier coating. I though that I would fill all the holes with thickened epoxy. To smooth out the bottom then barrier. Is this right? or do I need to put a layer of epoxy on the bottom first?

Thanks

[JP Dalik]

I believe its interlux that makes a light epoxy based bottom filler designed for blister repair without the arm breaking sandability of other fillers. Then interprotect 200 and off you go.

Chimera gets stripped this fall before Hatteras next spring.

[CaptPatrick]

Interlux bare fiberglass bottom paint guide (pdf)

[Ripsangler]

The boatyard power washed the barnacles off the bottom which exposed hondreds of little gelcote divots. I'm assuming these were blisters but they never bubbled. I think that the gelcote is falling apart. I have since soda blasted the bottom and have bagun to grind out the bad areas. I'v searched the old blister threads and figured on filling with epoxy w filler than barrier coat w/ interlux. My question is that should I expext the rest of the gelcote to fail, wasting the barrier coat, or should I repair the blisters and paint w/ ablative to see how it holds up for another summer.

[Tony Meola]

I have to second JP's advice. I have used both the Interlux putty and the Interprotect. The putty when mixed up is easy to work with and sands well and I made for below water use. Then interprotect the bottom. The can says 3 coats but in this case 4 to 5 is your friend.

When we did our bottom, in 1986, yes that's right 1986, I had those tiny little blisters, looked like pimples right on the keel near the transom. Sand blasting at the time opened them up. Filled, faired and then 5 coats of interprotect.

Well, 24 years later and still going strong. Only mistake we made was using hard vinyl bottom paint in the early days. Use an ablative.

[Russ Pagels]

tony what is the problem with hard vinyl bottom paint.I'm getting the bottom painted and thought the hard paint would best for my boat as it spends most it's time on a lift. thanks Russ

[Capt.Frank]

Russ hard paint need to be sanded and Ablative wears off. I am a hard paint fan right now. I thought long and had before repainting about going ablative But not this year.

Hows the new boat coming?

[Tony Meola]

Russ

If you are on a lift, I would probably go hard. You don't need to worry about growth so you can probably stretch out two coats for a couple of years. The issue is that with hard, you start to get build up then it begins to peel.

I have a friend who uses only hard. But he wipes the bottom down each spring with thinners and never repaints until he absolutley must. He has had luck doing that. He goes 3 to 5 years before he needs to repaint the whole bottom.

[Ripsangler]

Capt. Frank, how did your bottom do after it's first season with the bottom done? Did any other blisters show up?

[Capt.Frank]

Don't know yet. Only hual every other year. In spring will dive and brush bottom clean and change zincs. I get two years out of bottom paint no problem. I'm in the water year round. After all the work I hope no blisters for long long time.

[Goodgrief]

I have used the West System blister repair and the interlux systems. They failed in three years. Sea Hawk makes a barier product that has worked great for the past four years. I filled the blisters with 3M vinalester filler, all is good.