Hull blisters

[Jon F]

Looking at buying a 1983 Catalina 25. Its been kept in a slip on a fersh water lake-I was told it had 25-50 pin hole to dime sized blisters. Some folks seem to think this is normal on older boats and not to worry. I've done a lot of study on the topic via the net. Looking for feed back from Catalina owners on prevalency/acceptability of certain size/amounts of hull blisters.Thanks

 

[LaDonna Bubak - Planet Catalina]

Could be worse

Only 25-50? Not bad for sitting in fresh water, if you ask me. But don't take their word for it - have it hauled & surveyed. Small osmotic blisters generally are not structural, merely cosmetic (although they can slow you down an "nth" of a knot if you're racing). If the boat comes with a trailer, you're in luck! Just haul it out & fix the blisters. It's not a whole lotta fun but it's cheaper than a yard!LaDonna

 

[Jon W]

Blisters

Jon,I recently sold my C25 that was in excellent condition except it had similar blisters to what you are describing. I accepted an offer $1000 less than original, after survey verified they were cosmentic and not structural. The boatyard estimated 3 or 4 thousand $ for repair. They look worse than they are. I never noticed any speed decrease, as other factors have probably more effect (like quality of the sails). The biggest problem, as you are demonstrating, is the questions it raises in a prospective buyers mind when you go to resell.

 

[Andrew Bell]

Epoxy bottom

I just sold my 1985 CS30. It had what appeared to be cosmetic blisters when I bought it. This bothered me to the point that last year I had the bottom sand blasted (with baking soda) this removed all bottom paint and opened the blisters. I then filled the blisters and repainted with 5 coats of Interprotect epoxy and VC17 myself. $1200 investment but now the bottom is better than new.

 

[Richard]

not a big deal

Most catalilnas in the 1980's will have blisters. They used the cheapest epoxy on the market at the time and look what happened...You can grind out each one and fix it or sand blast the whole bottom and put on an epoxy barrier coat. Neither will actually fix the problem, but will greatly reduce it. The previous owner of mine went the sandblast/epoxy route and I still have about 50 to 100 blisters.It is not really a big deal if they are small. If they get larger it will tend to crack the bottom paint off. Then there is the resale issue...Richard