blisters and moisture

[psneeld]

I believe you are supposed to dry after peeling the hull. While gel coat is not a waterproof barrier, is still a barrier to moisture and greatly slows drying even with vacuum. Grinding is preferred to peeling as the grinder operator only stops when wetness and delamination is gone.

His job was similar to mine, I recovered with 6oz cloth after the deeper repairs of roving and cloth. Then a filler layer of epoxy, then finished with Interlux 2000 system.

Once your hull goes beyond simple blisters, it's rolling the dice to see how bad hydrolysis will get and how fast.

 

[Sealife]

I peeled instead of grinded. Pretty sure we got all the moisture out of the hull!

 

[Eddieandgail]

Mat is actually the worst thing to put on....but at least it was saturated with epoxy....at least I hope it was saturated for his sake.

Please qualify your statement that mat is the worst thing. The only negative to mat with epoxy is that mat was designed to be used with polyester resin and epoxy doesn’t break down what holds it together unless that is out of date info. I always thought supposed to use woven with epoxy.
Eddie and Gail

 

[psneeld]

Supposedly the strands in mat wick water deeper and faster because of the way it is made.

Maybe with epoxy, it not an issue or it just takes longer if its perfect layup....when is anything ever perfect?

Thats why boats are having these problems to begin with.

Read up on the who,e subject and you will repeatedly hear bad things about the use of mat in the construction...but Ivwill admit nothing or not much about its use in the repair.

I have just never heard or read of anyone using it in bottom repair.

 

[bglad]

In most cases blisters do not require repair. In all cases repairs are very expensive in time and money and if not well done will not be durable.

In the older trawler world there are a lot of things someone can do to their boat to improve its reliability and utility for its intended use over the planned time of ownership other than repairing blisters. If one plans on keeping a boat for the long term and hull value relative to blister repair cost is high then it makes sense to preserve its value.

 

[psneeld]

The problem with "ignoring" blisters is you have no idea if you have a hydrolysis issue or not.

You can get away with not repairing blisters, but there is often way more to your hulls story.

Repairing at least a few and going deep enough gives you a better window of your hull's condition.

Hopefully you find little as most do and can just monitor.

 

[boatpoker]

Please qualify your statement that mat is the worst thing. The only negative to mat with epoxy is that mat was designed to be used with polyester resin and epoxy doesn’t break down what holds it together unless that is out of date info. I always thought supposed to use woven with epoxy.
Eddie and Gail

Mat is comprised of millions of approximately 2" long strands. Multiply that by two for the number of wick end which will be sucking in water unless every single one is sealed to perfection (unlikely).

 

[Sealife]

The problem with "ignoring" blisters is you have no idea if you have a hydrolysis issue or not.

You can get away with not repairing blisters, but there is often way more to your hulls story.

Repairing at least a few and going deep enough gives you a better window of your hull's condition.

Hopefully you find little as most do and can just monitor.

Like massive delamination

 

[psneeld]

I pulled lage chunks of roving and thd mat between them off by hand in ond area of my boat... filled at least one trash can.

Till one does that and researches this issue way beyond the occasional blister repair article.... very little is usually known on the subject..