chuck,
Do you not recommend popping the blisters, allowing the blisters to dry out
and applying an epoxy coat? That doesn't sound exotic, and I thought it
would be prudent for any boat that is kept in the water.


wrote in message
oups.com...

wrote:
I may have talked about this idea before but it was inspired when I was
doing blister repairs on a boat and used a heat gun. The heat gun
literally drove water from the hull and it poured out of adjacent
blisters so...........Why waste time heating the glass when you really
want to heat the water and other polar molecules. Enclose the boat in
a cover of aluminized plastic and put a microwave generator inside.
The water and other polar molecules in the gel coat would be driven out
over a few days. Of course you'd have to keep the power level low
enough to not cause arcing near any metal fittings but that should be
easy. You might want to score the gelcoat to facilitate the
evaporation of the water.
Next, you drive thermo-setting resin into the gel coat under pressure
or even slowly setting ultra-low viscosity epoxy. Finally a sealer
coat. No BS gel coat peeling that fails 80 % of the time.


The vast majority of blisters affect only the gelcoat and do not lead
to delamination of the
hull. Most exotic blister repairs accomplish little or nothing to
extend the life or improve the strength of the hull, and some do
considerable damage. Best advice for those with cosmetic, gelcoat
blisters is to forget about them and enjoy the boat. It's appropriate
to check for any sign of delam during the periodic haulout, whether
there are cosmetic gelcoat blisters or not. It would be hard to imagine
that the cosmetic benefit of a microwave approach would outweigh the
potential damage to other portions of the boat.