How many people have hull blister problems?

[Moderator]

Just curious how many people have had hull blister problems, and the severity of them.

Rainshadow (hull #126) has had a few hundred easily repairable cosmetic blisters over her lifetime, the majority on the port side, that being SE side of the boat in its moorage for the last 20 years so maybe a little warmer. Water temp around here is a cool 55F, and she’s spent all her years in these waters, except the 3 years she spent cruising from Seattle to Oz in the mid 80’s. I would guess water temperature has something to do with severity of blister formations…

Any others want to report? From the earlier email discussion, we know Panta Rhei had a bad go of it with blisters.

[Alexina]

Alexina has been treated with Gelshield epoxy. Despite this every year when lifting out we have a handful of blisters. We simply abrade them out and fill with epoxy. Over eight years of ownership the number of blisters decreases year by year.

This gradual treatment is the one recommended by Hugo du Plessis in his comprehensive book “Fibreglass boats” He goes further to say that Nicholsons are prone to osmosis. Boats that have been treated on a blister by blister basis appear to have fewer problems than those who have had a systemic treatment of gel coat treatment and epoxy replacement.

We have however had problems with the rudder which required removal of the gell coat and replacement with an epoxy layer. This was successful for four years but this winter we had about ten blisters on the rudder. These were abraded and filled.

Peter

[Ronar M]

Ronar M had been epoxied underwater when we bought her and there have been no problems there but tiny blisters began to appear above the waterline. At first I just hooked them out and filled them but they all came back. Eventually I had Advanced Osmosis Technologies UK tackle the problem. The gel coat was removed about 12 inches above and just below the w/l and the area scrubbed repeatedly and then allowed to dry out. Finally an epoxy and cloth barrier was applied before final filling and faring. The results are superb.

Trevor

[Author]

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