Blisters

One does not hear much about blisters in Ericsons (except for some models made in Mexico in the late 80's). My boat is 16 years old and has had no problems. Am I "home free" on this issue or is there always the possibility blisters could develop? (I am having some painting done and am wondering if I should go to the expense of barrier coating the bottom). Thanks.

Blisters?

I have seen many Ericsons from the mid-70's onwards with blisters (albeit small ones) all over the bottom. None have been deep enough to be a structural threat, however.
There were resin formulation changes in the boatbuilding boom of the 70's that are blamed for much of the problem with many builders. In any case, you could still have some develop... but if you have gone this long without 'em, I doubt that you will see any sudden drastic change for the worse. Osmiotic blistering is one of those things that seems to happen to many frp boats, imho.
Loren in Portland, OR

Not sure what year your Ericson is but I just had my '84 35-III peeled and barrier coated. When we hauled this spring we started to peel the old bottom paint in order to get a smooth starting point for the new paint. After peeling a 2 foot by 2 foot section we found a large number so dime to nickel size blisters. We decided to peel the gel coat and go the barrier coat route. It was only a litte more $$$ than having each of the expected blisters repaired separately. Don't know how long they were there as this was our first shot at a bottom job. Loren is probably right, I wouldn't expect that you would suddenly have a massive outbreak, however if we had not dtarted to peel the old paint down to the gel coat we might not have discovered the blisters. In other words ther may be some there that you are not aware of.

Ray

From what I have read, it doesn't seem like there is any point in applying a barrier coat at this point without peeling the gelcoat because you would just trap whatever moisture is behind the barrier coat. And I am not going to peel the gelcoat until I have a problem. I am not happy to hear that you can have blisters hidden by the bottom paint. However, my bottom paint is very thin and often flakes off to bare gelcoat without revealing any blisters so far. So I guess I will find something else to worry about.

Tiny Blisters on 88 Ericson 26 Bottom-How Resolve?

My 1988 Ericson, Aluva, was made in Mexico.
Removed the ablative (Micron CSC) a few years ago.
No blisters were seen. Use VC 17 now.
Two years ago countless tiny, acne sized, blisters formed.
They do not seem to be causing a problem other than
appearance when out of the water.

What are your suggestions to resolve this problem?

Thanks, Lyle

I had the same situation as Lyle on my E-34 and bit the bullet this past off season and had the bottom peeled, barrier coated, and painted.

I'm getting older and some day I may want to sell the boat.
<O</O
"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the f**k happened." <O</O

Geoff, I would strip down to gelcoat in the fall. Have the bottom tested for moistuire. Let it sit all winter and then in the spring check the moisture content again. If it is dry enough, apply barrier and sleep better at night.

This is what I did and have been very happy with the results. My hull was very dry when surveyed(big factor in the purchase for me) and it was still very dry in the spring when I applied the BC.

I have never seen any evidence of blisters before or after I stripped the hull. I am on my 3rd season after applying the BC. Still looks good.

need ballpark estimate for barrier coat on E27

Hi, peoples.
I'm stripping the bottom on my newly bought E27 (1978 split scoop)
I'm finding some little blisters here and there, mostly near waterline largest is around 1/4 to 5/16 dia or so.
I don't see any barrier coat under the antifouling paint.

Would anybody give me a ballpark estimate on how much it would cost to barrier coat the bottom on my E27?
What do the yards typically charge??? until now I have owned trailerable sailboats and didnt' have to deal with bottom paint...

Thanks for your input,
Mac

mac666 said:

Hi, peoples.
I'm stripping the bottom on my newly bought E27 (1978 split scoop)
I'm finding some little blisters here and there, mostly near waterline largest is around 1/4 to 5/16 dia or so.
I don't see any barrier coat under the antifouling paint.

Would anybody give me a ballpark estimate on how much it would cost to barrier coat the bottom on my E27?
What do the yards typically charge??? until now I have owned trailerable sailboats and didnt' have to deal with bottom paint...
Thanks for your input,
Mac

Click to expand...

You need to contact several boat yards in your area, and hopefully other E owners in your area can direct you to (or away) from vendors.
One thing to keep in mind is that no one can really say just how much the total cost will be until the old bottom paint is all off and the true condition of the gel coat is revealed. This is a labor-intensive job.
Often you can just sand/scrape off the layers of ancient paint and find that you only need to open, dry, and fill small areas of blisters... not a major task. Additionally, be aware that the original gel coat has a purpose, i.e. to protect the laminate from moisture. Back in the day, some yards were wholesale-stripping every bottom they could just to slap on some epoxy goo and issue out a "life time warranty" knowing full well that they would sell the business within 5 years...

Like any major medical procedure, get a second opinion.

Best,
LB

mac666 said:

Hi, peoples.

Would anybody give me a ballpark estimate on how much it would cost to barrier coat the bottom on my E27?
What do the yards typically charge??? until now I have owned trailerable sailboats and didnt' have to deal with bottom paint...

Thanks for your input,
Mac

Click to expand...

A big part of this answer is how much of the work can you do yourself, and how bad are they? If you only have a scattered handful, and they are small, the best thing to do may be nothing but haul annually and watch them until they start to change/grow/increase in numbers. If you can do all the work yourself, you probably can get by around $500+ in materials. I'm budgeting 4 gallons of Interlux Interprotect 2000E at about $80/each, $125 worth of West System Epoxy and fillers and that only leaves $55.00 for sandpaper, solvents, brushes, rollers, etc.... The labor is intensive, and you'll really need to talk to specific yards to see what they would charge. My above estimate assumes you've sanded off your old bottom paint yourself. I wasn't in the mood to sand off my own paint, have sand blasted enough cars to have grit in my shorts for weaks to not be interested in doing it myself, so I had Emerald's bottom blasted for a mere $450. As you can see, this project can easily cost you a $1000, and I'd just double or triple that for a yard to do the work.

West System has extensive information on their website, and a detailed document about gelcoat blisters and their repair you can download here as a .pdf file:

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/assets/howto-pub2/Gelcoat Blisters Diagnosis Repair and Prevention.pdf

This link is from here:

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/boat-repair/

I've just hauled after about 15 months after doing a blister repair using the West System and 406 to fill and build, West with 410 to fair, and then Interlux Interprotect 2000E for barrier, and so far, it's looking good. No affiliation with any vendor, it just looks like this approach is working for me. However, if you search this board for blister repair, you will find a variety of experiences and success, and there are no guarantees

In my experience, haul the boat and let it sit and dry out for a few days. If the blisters are weeping, it's time for repair. If not, put a fresh coat of bottom paint on and go sailing.

Gary makes a good point. One of the things you might want to do is take something like a small pen knife or screw driver and see if you can easily break open a blister and if you then get liquid coming out. If it ruptures easily and oozes, it's probably worth pursuing. If they are still hard, paint and sail is not a bad way to go.

barrier coat

I am in the process of applying a barrier coat. I am currently removing all
the old bottom paint, down to the gel coat. I would like to apply the barrier coat over the gel coat. I have many small, pimple-like, blisters on the hull. All of the blisters are drained, the boat has been out of the water for six months. What i would like to know is.....will the barrier coat be effective when applied over the gel coat? Thanks.