Bilsters and Delamination

[Nathan Needel]

Hello,

My Seidelmann 37 has had a bad blister/boat pox problem for along time.

We finnaly decided to do a Gell Peel. We ahve found loads of chopped mat, about 1/2 inch worth before we find some roven glass. When we get down to Roven Glass it is good and sound/solid.

Does anyone know how much roven glass was used in these boats? We are going to wrap her in new epoxy resin and biaxial glass.

Does anyone know how much roven glass was used in these boats? I am concerned about strength around the keel, in the forward and aft sections of the hull.


Nathan
Moonraker
Sarasota, FL
813 426 3549
nathan@needel.net

 

[Napa Ed]

Roving or woven? Is roven a combo of the two?

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Production schedule

Roving is a thick fiberglass cloth used in structural aspects of the hull construction. How much material did you remove with the peeling process? Blisters usually are a gel coat problem which lets moisture penetrate the hull. Usually you do not have to remove a lot of the laminate because blisters do not appear in the laminate. Once the gelcoat is peeled or sandblasted off you want to completely dry out the hull before applying anything. Usually you don't need to remove laminates of roving, cloth and mat. After the hull is dry then you can start applying the system of your choice to put a solid barrier coat of epoxy on the hull. I recommend Interlux's Interprotect system.
It surprises me that you stripped the fiberglass hull to the roving. Usually you just strip the gelcoat because that is where the blisters are. If the laminate underneath was deteriorated, I would suggest it might be a lousy lay up job.
Seidelmann's were built in Camden, NJ and I have been through their plant and met Bob Seidelmann. Their boats were not high quality production boats, but they were ok, in my opinion. Bob Seidelmann used to grind his hulls thinner (on his personal boats, not the production boats) to make them lighter for racing. But they weren't bad sailing boats out of the box.
Anyway, I fear that maybe you removed too much material if you peeled all the way down to roving. Did you do this yourself? Or did a yard do this? I am not looking at the boat, so I could be way off base, but that would be my concern.

 

[Nathan Needel]

Thanks

Bill,

Thank you for your thoughtfull response. Excuse my misuse of fiberlass terms. We are trying to peel it down to woven fiberglass mat. My concern is that the whole hull is made out of chopped matt and only the last coupple layres are woven mat. I have a contractor from Palm Bay Florida doing the work and he appears to be very compitent. I think the problem with the hull is that there is so much chopped mat. Each time we peel down we find more deep blisters in the chopped mat. When we find woven fiberglass it is definately sound. The deeper chopped mat is not as wet as the stuff that was on the surface but has gooie brown fluid. Today we are working on a light peel and grinding right behind it. Once we can get down to sound material we intend in wraping the boat with a roven material; glass mat with chopped mat on the other side... Interlux Epoxy then Interlux 2000 is the plan.

OH, also, in some places the delamination is so bad we can use a pry bar to pull 2 or 3 foot square peices off; there is uncured resen (tackey) and shiney parts. It is like they layed part of the hull up on a firday afternoon then came back Monday and continued with out prepairing the surface to bond to the new material being added.

I've asked my contractor if I should buy a chain saw, and cut the boat up; sell the parts for scrap/ebay... He says he has seen worse blistering but is one of the worst layups he has ever seen.

Roving is a thick fiberglass cloth used in structural aspects of the hull construction. How much material did you remove with the peeling process? Blisters usually are a gel coat problem which lets moisture penetrate the hull. Usually you do not have to remove a lot of the laminate because blisters do not appear in the laminate. Once the gelcoat is peeled or sandblasted off you want to completely dry out the hull before applying anything. Usually you don't need to remove laminates of roving, cloth and mat. After the hull is dry then you can start applying the system of your choice to put a solid barrier coat of epoxy on the hull. I recommend Interlux's Interprotect system.
It surprises me that you stripped the fiberglass hull to the roving. Usually you just strip the gelcoat because that is where the blisters are. If the laminate underneath was deteriorated, I would suggest it might be a lousy lay up job.
Seidelmann's were built in Camden, NJ and I have been through their plant and met Bob Seidelmann. Their boats were not high quality production boats, but they were ok, in my opinion. Bob Seidelmann used to grind his hulls thinner (on his personal boats, not the production boats) to make them lighter for racing. But they weren't bad sailing boats out of the box.
Anyway, I fear that maybe you removed too much material if you peeled all the way down to roving. Did you do this yourself? Or did a yard do this? I am not looking at the boat, so I could be way off base, but that would be my concern.

 

[Napa Ed]

"wraping the boat with a roven material"-what is roven material?
at least you've brought up the idea of a chainsaw. less money to toss this one and buy something else. of course the contractor wants the work. no money for him in a chainsaw.

 

[Nathan Needel]

Please be more respectfull. Please do not comment on future posts I have.