"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
We had dinner with a buddy boat tonight. They commented that the barrier
coat they used had a brochure in it which described exactly what we are
doing as particularly important to THEIR system, which they guarantee for
some length of time (years). When I have the actual brochure in my hands
I'll repeat it verbatim - along with the name (Interlux, I think) and
product number - here in a followup. However, at least one manufacturer,
and in particular, one which offers a guarantee, agrees that the only hope
one has for a successful barrier coat is to do exactly what we're doing.

The continued research we've been doing suggests that if the fiberglass
isn't perfect in layup (materials, humidity, application techniques,
etc.), once you START having blisters, you're going to continue to have
blisters, no matter what you do about it.

HOWEVER - the best you CAN do, apparently, is, indeed, to wet the hull and
then pressure wash it, several times.

Yesterday we wet it thoroughly. Today, new areas were visible
(encouraging the now-liquid-ized stuff to come to the surface), albeit all
still VERY small. The new cheapo pressure washer was applied to the
surface next. Any blisters with the slightest amount of open area allowed
water in under pressure, further lifting any non-perfectly bound glass,
and, further, for the most part, causing it to depart the skin of the boat
as, once the process started, the light stuff blew off, allowing access to
more of it, and so on.

So....

Not only does it work, but it's going to save me a lot of grinding to get
the same areas removed for "packing" prior to the barrier coat. Those
areas I'd already identified were, of course, the worst (if you can call
an area of less than a dime in size "worst"), and were more prone to
opening with the puny 1600PSI sprayer we have. However, a few more of
these treatements, and I expect we'll have a VERY good remediation of the
tiny blisters we have. Sure is fun to see the hull getting lighter as we
wash off that tiny film of hydrolized compounds which have been making
their way to the surface and darkening it slightly!

L8R

Skip, who MAY get some more pix up some time soon, after I get some of the
PW series yet to be taken in and out of the camera...

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half
so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing about
in
boats-or *with* boats.

In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's
the charm of it.

Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do,
and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."





Skippy, you are myopic if you think spraying the hull with water is going to
remove all the osmotic fluid from inside the laminate. The BEST your
spraying technique is going to do is to wash off the fluid that has managed
to migrate to the surface by oozing out of cracks and small holes in the
laminate. In those areas not cracked or holed, the the osmotic fluid will
remain inside the laminate and, even if you do barrier coat the works,
unless you barrier coat BOTH inside and outside the osmosis will continue
and so will the blisters.

I'll say it again. To eliminate blisters completely the ONLY foolproof
method that will work every time is extensive drying of the hull to diffuse
and evaporate all the moisture that is causing the pressure that causes the
blisters. This needs to be done in a very low humidity environment and might
well take two years or more depending upon how soggy the laminate is.

After the hull is dried, both the inside and outside of the laminate needs
to be barrier coated.

End of problem and the ONLY way to end the problem. What you are doing now
is just a waste of time because blisters will return. GUARANTEED!


Wilbur Hubbard