I know blistering hasn't been much of problem with Ariels/Commanders, or so Bill's manual says. But here's my experience. I've been re-doing 376 for the past year. I stripped off all the accumulated bottom paint and looked closely at the gel coat. I saw some very fine cracks, mostly on the keel as it angles up to the bow. I got out the grinder to "investigate" and see how deep they went, and did find some evidence of blisters as I removed gel coat. There were a few spots where the laminate had some pock marks-- clearly where the resin had dissolved. It wasn't too bad, was restricted to only a few areas. The fix was to remove some of the gel coat and then coat the bottom with several coats of vinylester (supposedly seals better than epoxy--- we'll see). Got a nice finish. Just because you don't see anything obvious doesn't mean something isn't going on!
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