Update on my boat herpes

[SmokyMtnGrady]

Last week I took my boat to the glass guy in Goose Creek,SC per the recommendation of a couple buddies here. They actually do warranty repair work for Grady. Turns out my blistering issue is a linear strip from the bow to the stern on the port side . it gets a little wider at the stern but it's in a line and Carl there suggested it's likely related to a lay up issue . The rest of the boat bottom and stern are clean.

Well to fix it I am looking at $10K to repair with gel coat . I can get it done with grinding out the blisters and filing back with epoxy and doing a complete bottom barrier coat and paint for $7k . He said he could not promise the blistering would not return with the gel coat repair or that it wouldn't pop up someplace else on the hull.

I am leaning toward repairing the blisters and putting an epoxy barrier coat on the entire bottom to stop osmosis going forward. He did say given the age of the boat what's done is done meaning he didn't think new areas would likely happen but you never know. He emphasized there is no structural issues here and if I did nothing it would not effect the boat but people when buying a boat see blistering as a lack of maintenance even though it's not really the case.

So, I am going to have the repair done and going to put the barrier coat and paint on it . hopefully going forward get 3-5 years out of it before it needs repainting. They said they would put 4 coats of Petits epoxy barrier coat on it per the petit reps recommendation.

if I have a question it's this. one day I will sell the boat and I will disclose that I had the blistering and had it repaired by a pro. Do you think that this will matter to most buyers? I am thinking no because the problem was addressed and fixed.

 

[DennisG01]

First, I agree with the "what's done is done" line of thinking.

I don't think the majority of buyers would be scared away - and the more savvy they are, the less scared they would be. But there will be some that will run for the hills - because they don't fully understand what's going on and/or how it was fixed. There's no way around that - it's going to happen. What I would suggest, though is to document everything REAL well - with plenty of pictures. ESPECIALLY pictures of the "fixed" area, both before and after the epoxy barrier coat. But I would get pictures of everything.

 

[Ky Grady]

And,,,, you have an excellent baseline in which to start from!!

 

[Dhirsh]

Blisters can pop up for all sorts of reasons. It could be like yours which seems like an issue between the skin coat and gel coat at layup in a small area relative to the size of the bottom, or it could just be osmotic that pops up here and there or on the entire bottom. If you intend to keep the boat in the water full time you should probably get them fixed properly and barrier coat as you are planning. I would get a second opinion on that price. $7K to 10K for an epoxy and bottom job with some blister repair on a 22 ft boat seems high to me for some reason. Used boats of this age are buyer beware and it's up to you if you want to open that can of worms with a potential buyer up front. It's a maintenance item, not structural, and it sounds like you are taking care of it properly. I would have no problem advertising that the boat has a new bottom with Epoxy barrier coat. That's better than the average bottom job and adds value. If a buyer asks why you chose to Barrier coat it you can have that conversation and explain. If there is anything wrong with the bottom, the buyers surveyor will find it during inspection and you can address it at that time. I'm not advocating hiding what you found and and what you did to correct it, I'm just saying I don't see the need to advertise "My boat had a blister problem" up front. Its purely a maintenance issue as would be countless other things that break on boats.

 

[Fishtales]

GW had issues in the past (believe 80s) but nothing large scale since is my belief. Sorry to hear about the blisters. Good advice above with pics and complete documentation. Might be good to see if you could get something in writing detailing the issue, fix etc from the guy doing the work, assuming he would do it. Unless you are going to go into every repair and warranty work performed, I wouldn't lead with it either. If it comes up, address it but don't lead with it. Nobody leads with going through all repairs and history of the item. If car dealerships did this, they wouldn't sell much...

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

The company is Hydro Craf and like I said they are a warranty place Seeles Outboard in Charleston uses for Grady repairs. A few folks highly recommended them to me. They are going to grind out and epoxy all the blisters. These are smaller than a tic tac but run in line from the bow to the stern. The repair will be done right. The majority of the cost is the labor to grind it all out and epoxy it. I like the ideas of pictures for future reference. I would rather spend the money on other things for the boat or iny life, lol,but taking care of the boat is a priority too. Thanks for the feed back guys.

 

[Fishtales]

You'll be fine once you get over forking the money over to fix. Good luck with the improved boat!