Damn the companies that produce 'rubberized' paints and pitty the fools that use it! Althought it has great non-skid properties and remains soft and forgiving, it is a real pain to remove. Grinding/sanding turns it into a hot, stinky, sticky mess. Scrapers are completely ineffective. Not being one to turn to chemicals as readily as before, it seems heat is most effective means of removal. This is about fifteen hours into the job
Tony, you're back! [aching back]
What Buffet is that, Warren? He sails boats of laminated $1000 bills?
But I like your deck there. Definitely non-skid as it is! Great cobble-stone look. One way to look at the coating - is how hard it is to get off. That's a good thing. But what you planning to put on: LPU and what kind of non-skid?
Yes, I've allways been here lurking below the surface, studying, watching and reading. The one thing I haven't been doing much of is working on 113. Really looking forward to getting started though now that the cotton wood trees are nearly done blooming. I've finally learned that you just can't paint, varnish or 'poxy until after the fourth of July around our neighborhood.
Jimmy Buffett used to sail before he started making money like Warren Aren't all of the new boats-eh hmm-yachts-made of laminated $1000 bills? When I read the reviews with prices listed it sure seems like they are. Sure, sometimes I too lust. But I know inside this is all the boat I need.
I never looked at the paint issue that way. If I knew I'd never have to make repairs to the deck again I might be persuaded to use this silly rubber paint again. I've been called a damned fool more than once, thank you. But I guess we'll just go with something simple like Interlux for the nonskid. Just as an aside, I won a bet with the Mrs. and SHE'S buying the Awlgrip and supplies. All two or three gallons!!!
First I have to fair those decks a little. Then fill in a couple of holes and then make some new ones and then finish it off with some fillets and such. Then maybe paint. Who knows, I'm really at the mercy of retail public. Tony G
Hal Roth (How to Sail Around the World) uses one part poly and coarse sand for the decks on his yachts. If I remember: wet coat, sprinkle on sand with sugar shaker, two more coats on top.
If the boat is going to get used a lot, cruised, the arguement is safe sure footing and the ability to repair the surface easily. No nonsense.
If you're going cruising. this book has a huge helping of great practical tips.
I don't want to be convinced that I need a 36 grit surface on the deck!
But, we don't have that much deck. When I think of having to go forward on a heaving boat streaming with green water on a dark and stormy night.....
Wow! Am I excited or what! A new layer to the project. These last couple of weeks when ever I go up the ladder my wandering eye slides over those 'cracks' in the paint on the hull. Only 113's hull has never been painted, just the decks...
Anybody cringing yet? Other than me, that is. You bet! At least 50-75 per side and I haven't even gone below the boot stripe yet. Well, I guess she'll be a new yacht through and through.
NOTICE
Now accepting volunteers for fun, rewarding positions in grinding and filling.
Tony,
Can't really make out if those chips are in the paint,
or are chips in the gelcoat, and what we see, the dark stuff, is another layer of paint,
or is the original poilyester layup of the hull.
I'm sorry, my head must have been a little cloudy from all the GLUE I'VE BEEN SNIFFING! After another hour of digging I've unearthed 200 to 300 on the port side
Ebb, it appears that the gel coat is poc marked, for lack of a better term. At the moment I'm fighting depression at the thought of dishing, filling and fairing all of these holes. Thank the Big One that this is a worth while craft or I'd be havin' a bon fire! The dark color underneath is the fiberglass. Looks like matt but I'm not sure of the laminate schedule used by Pearson. The 1/4" diameter ones are a true 1/16" deep. The little pin head ones are less. Less deep that is, still a big PIA.
Anybody on our site experience joy like this yet? Sounds like what Tim L. went through with Glissando. Well, in up to my eyeballs, Tony G
Here's an archive shot of the turn of my bilge. These pock marks were discoved when removing the bottom paint. Couldn't see what the surface looked like, because the grinder removed the paint and some of the gel coat at the same time. Kind of looks like your chips, but mine were all below waterline, and in places where ebb thinks maybe the resin gun at the factory might have been spluttering out, leaving air holes. But who knows? I fixed it all by removing the gel coat from the problem areas, then rolled on about 5 coats of vinylester on the bottom before the bottom paint. Got a good finish (not excellent) but also fixed the problem. Not a solution for your topsides problem-- won't be smooth enough.
for what it's worth,
338 has those pocs, very simular, where ever I have sanded thru thr gelcoat - or almost thru the gelcoat - I'm only assuming that it is the nature of the gelcoat just after they sprayed it on and were laying on the mat - the first layer of the laminate. I've come across this topside and on deck.
When 338 was coming out of the water and being surveyed, Capt Roger found some five or six suspicious bumps in the antifouling. I forgot about them and they "diaappeared" The hull was taken down to the gelcoat some time later and they have remained disappeared. Have since found out that this is common. If the bumps were true blisters, they are still ther and will reappear.
The isophthalic polyester in our hulls does not produce the modern blisters. But obviously air pockets and/or incomplete mixing problems, foreign material or almost anything could cause isolated or uncommon problems in the A/C gelcoat.
The mat under the gelcoat on 338 doesn't seem to be very thick. Blisters are a phenomenon that appear at the interface of gelcoat and mat. An assumption I have to make is that any free chemicals that didn't get catalysed in the original hull layup MUST be long since gone.
Afterall the hull is semi=permeable, water flushed you could say.
Most of the blisters I've observed on other boats are symetrical like boils. They ARE boils, under pressure with chemical and salt water cocktail. What I see in your foto looks irregular, angular. Almost as if they are externally caused damage. Like an anchor? Halloween prank? Maybe badly patched by the DFO and reappearing. I would get close with a magnifying glass. Get some oblique light on the hull to see if ther are anymore bumps ready to hatch. But by definition, age. material it can't be your normal everyday blisters.
Personally, I would do two stage epoxy. Laminate Part A, Slow hardner Part B. Soak the holes, wipe them 'dry.' Fill with epoxy/cabosil gel. I disagree with polyester on polyester cold patching and underwater repairs.
So...you've got those too, eh? I had lots (didn't count 'em) and they looked to me like bubbles in the first layup that didn't get rolled out. I filled the ones that I found and stopped thinking about the ones I didn't find. Maybe not as scrupulously honest as I sometimes claim to be, but stuff like that can get downright depressing.
I was thinking that it was because our hulls are sort of close together in the run of things (105 and 113), but since ebb and others have found similar goings-on, I think it's just carelessness in the construction. I, at least, cannot blame anything on the ravages of saltwater, 105 is a strictly freshwater boat.
During this loooong de- and re-construction, I have found all kinds of things that can be put down to the same carelessness, but she is, after all, an elderly lady, so I give her and her builders the benefit of the doubt.
By the way, don't do what I did as far as grinding those little bubbles out. I used a sander and made myself lots of work filling and fairing, an effort which continues today. I wonder sometimes why I always do things wrong the first time, you'd think I could guess right at least once in a while. One nice thing is, I sure am learning a lot about the boat and how I should have done things the first time.
We had the same pocs below the w/l on 350. Only below the turn of the bilge. But there was a bunch. Decided they weren't blisters after reading all i could find. I decided to pressure wash, after ginding down all the paint/ gel coat, then let 'em dry good for a couple days. Painted areas with epoxy, then faired with epoxy and colloidal silica. Then we did a barrier coat and bottom paint. I think she's pretty well taken care of. Guess we'll find out in a few yrs.
I didn't find anything like what you have above w/l, and i took her down to the gel coat.
Hopefully they'll be in small patches and easy to take care of
Wew! I don't feel so alone anymore. Thanks for therapeutic support all. Thanks for the pic Kent, it's always nice to have someone step up and say,'that ain't bad, look at this!' At least now if/when I get to the bottom I shouldn't freak out.
I reviewed and reread the Gougeon Brothers, Casey, Lackey and it's just going to be more work. No way around it. Nothing catastrophic...it's just that I'm only now getting to May's work in August. 'Hoping for a big late in the season push to get back on schedule or close. Once again I've been chasing the $buck$ instead of working on my soul, my boat. This is how carma works, isn't it?
In 2055, 50 years from now, there'll be tonys, kents, williies, gregs & ebbs - maybe grandkids and surely those who make fortunate discoveries (like having an Ariel or Commander find them!) - they'll be gathering to trade observations on the centenial restorations the old girls are enduring. We're all doing the work that'll take them on to their next refurbishment. Giving them sweat and life and keeping them sailing for the good little princess they are. Oh yeah!
Aren't all of the new boats-eh hmm-yachts-made of laminated $1000 bills? When I read the reviews with prices listed it sure seems like they are. Sure, sometimes I too lust. But I know inside this is all the boat I need.
ave maria
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