can i postpone fixing blisters ???

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Dos Gatos

You can postpone blisters until the next owner.

What if he IS the next owner? How many owners in a row can get away with this?

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Waterwayguy

Severe delamination has little to nothing to do with blisters. I have been dealing with them for decades and I think I can say, don't worry, go sailing. Blisters have never sank a boat or cause the hull to fall apart. You can never deal with them if you like, and your boat will still be safe and the sailing will be great. The only one that will complain is the next owner. Don't waste time fixing them of you plan to grind a little off and fill them in a week. They will indeed return. To fix them properly, the area that is being repaired needs to be dry to 3% or less. This can take months just sitting in the yard or less if the boat can be put in a climate controlled environment. Wait until you won't be using the boat for a while and fix them then. In the mean time, deal with other stuff that will affect your sailing pleasure. Chuck

So not true. Blisters are a sign of a saturated laminate. A saturated laminate leads to hydrolysis and delamination. I've seen it many times, it's a known fact. A boat can certainly delam for other reasons as well, but the relation is undeniable. I have professionally dried countless hulls, and I've never ever seen a reading of 3%, not even in a brand new boat that hasn't been in the water yet. Most barrier coat manufacterers want you to reach 10% relative or less to get the warranty. I have never seen a wet boat reach 10% by any method other than Hotvac, air drying will usually only get you to 12-13% at best, no matter how long you dry it, unless perhaps you are in a desert. This means if you want the warranty, you need to use a Hotvac or talk a factory rep into giving you the warranty at a higher reading. People here have done that before, someone on the forum got a warranty at 19% by being persistent!

[bstreep]

Just my $0.02. We have a boat that has blisters when we do the bottom every 2 years. Last time better than the time before - maybe 1/3 the number of blisters. And yes, it had been barrier coated.

Sail the boat, worry about the blisters next winter. Or, do a quick bandaide fix before launching. Grind and fill, put a hard antifouling on it, and move on.

[Jolly Roger]

When I bought my 45 footer two years ago it had thousands of small blisters all over the hull, most about ¼” round. The surveyor popped a few and declared they were only paint deep and due to the last paint job not being given enough time to dry. There was no antifouling on the boat at that time.
Two years later, after sitting in an intercostal marina all the time, we lifter her and found the blisters to be exactly the same, no more, no less.
I have sanded them all down now and only a couple are weeping. These will be coated with 2000e and some cheap antifouling slapped on. Then we are going sailing for the first time since we bought the boat.
When we come back about June, we will spend the Florida summer peeling the bottom and doing a proper job, ready to go cruising about November.
GO SAILING!
www.schooner-britannia.com

[Cheechako]

In the water 3 months? go for it! Then get them ground out so they they dry before next season!