Harry Krause wrote:
BTW, no matter what anyone tells you or what you read, if you see
evidence of osmotic blistering on a boat you are thinking of buying,
move on.

Depends on the boat, depends on the blisters.


Chuck Gould wrote:
Please do tell how the typical gelcoat blisters found on most used
boats have a "far greater impact" than cosmetic.


I dunno about "far greater" impact, but one certainly sould
not take it for granted. After all, a fiberglass boat has a
great deal of structural integrity depending on the skin.
That means any diminution of the skin is diminishing the
structure, no?



David Pascoe

ummm, yeah. Him.

One might want to take his web site with a grain of salt. He
thinks diesel engines have spark plugs and that pressboard
is the same as laminated composite.


after examining 4000 used boats with some degree of blistering he found
only about 10 where the blisters actually created an issue with
structural integrity.

Measured how?

I've seen blisters that were in the paint and not affecting
the fiberglass at all; I've seen some that were in the
surface and either did not affect the strength, or affected
it very very little... and some that certainly would affect
the structural integrity of the boat, since they were almost
baseball-sized craters.

As for claims of affecting or not affecting the strength,
the only way to tell would be to place a load on the hull
and measure the deflection, then compare that result to a
similar test result done when the boat was new.

Most boats do not get such loads under normal use, which is
why you don't hear much about blistered boats crumpling at
sea. OTOH to buy a severely blistered boat and head around
Cape Horn, just to prove the boat's strength, would probably
not be smart.

Fair Skies
Doug King