GelCoat Blisters
 

Are there any worse than those of the French variety?

GelCoat Blisters
 

Yup.....Some Pearson's in the late eighties and blister problems that
literally killed the boats. Valiant had a run of boats with a blister
problem so serious that even fully repaired boats lost 1/3 of their
value. Catalina had a bad period and so on. I'm grateful that the
Beneteau 35s5 has virtually no recorded blister problems, but Beneteau
has had plenty of blister issues on other hulls.

RB
35s5....No blisters!
NY

GelCoat Blisters
 

"Capt. Rob" wrote in message

Valiant had a run of boats with a blister
problem so serious that even fully repaired boats lost 1/3 of their
value.

Some of the Valiants and Uniflites (power boats) lost more than that. Some
are virtually unmarketable today. Since you are the "expert" broker, do you
know why these boats blistered so severely?

Max

GelCoat Blisters
 

Some of the Valiants and Uniflites (power boats) lost more than that.
Some
are virtually unmarketable today. Since you are the "expert" broker,
do you
know why these boats blistered so severely?


I'm no expert broker and never handled either, so let's here about it.
I remember reading about the problem somewhere re the Valiant line,
probably in Sailing in one of their used boat reviews.

RB
35s5...blister free!
NY

GelCoat Blisters
 

"Capt. Rob" wrote in message
ups.com...
Some of the Valiants and Uniflites (power boats) lost more than that.
Some
are virtually unmarketable today. Since you are the "expert" broker,
do you
know why these boats blistered so severely?


I'm no expert broker and never handled either, so let's here about it.
I remember reading about the problem somewhere re the Valiant line,
probably in Sailing in one of their used boat reviews.

Someone came up with the bright idea that using a layer of asbestos in the
hulls would make them fireproof. Around the same time, they even used
asbestos fibers in the chopper guns. Asbestos, it seems, is hygroscopic as
hell, thus the blisters. The Uniflites and Valiants in question all had
asbestos in their hulls. Additionally many yards refused to repair the
blisters due to the asbestos hazard from the grinding. So lots of those old
boats became virtually unmarketable. I don't recall the dates of
manufacturer, but anyone considering an old Valiant should check out the
dates first.

Max

GelCoat Blisters
 

This is th efirst time i have heard this asbestos story. Furthermore,
after extensive internet searches, I have never found any instance of
boats destroyed by osmotic blisters EXCEPT those made entirely by
chopper gun applied glass. If anybody has a reference to such an
instance, please let me know.

GelCoat Blisters
 

I misspoke, Instead of Chopper gun applied glass, I know that "Chopped
Mat Strand" glass can cause destructive blistering. I have never heard
of destructive blistering in a boat constructed from woven fiberglass.

GelCoat Blisters
 

Some of the Valiants and Uniflites (power boats) lost more than that.
Some
are virtually unmarketable today.

Really? AFAIK both change hands at somewhat higher than
average prices. Generally regarded as pretty good boats.


Maxprop wrote:
Someone came up with the bright idea that using a layer of asbestos in the
hulls would make them fireproof. Around the same time, they even used
asbestos fibers in the chopper guns. Asbestos, it seems, is hygroscopic as
hell, thus the blisters. The Uniflites and Valiants in question all had
asbestos in their hulls.

???

Never heard this.

Uniflite built boats for the military, which required
fire-retardant *resin* to be used in the hull lay-up. This
resin turned out to be less imprevious to water than they
realized.

... Additionally many yards refused to repair the
blisters due to the asbestos hazard from the grinding.

Never heard this either.

.... So lots of those old
boats became virtually unmarketable.

Actually, a Uniflite and 2 Valiants have been sold in our
marina within the past year and a half. One of the Valiants
sold almost overnight for the ask price, which I thought was
rather high.

Are you just spreading this rumor because you want to buy a
Valiant and want to get teh price down?

DSK

GelCoat Blisters
 

Really? AFAIK both change hands at somewhat higher than
average prices.

Sailing magazine did a review on the Valiant and mentioned that it was
possible to buy hulls with the blister problems at lower
prices....whatever "lower" might mean. In any case, Max is quite right
and you can read the specifics he

http://www.boats.com/content/boat-ar...ontentid=10111

Thanks for the info, Max. I had read about it, but not filed it. Good
to know.

RB
35s5
NY

GelCoat Blisters
 

wrote in message

This is th efirst time i have heard this asbestos story. Furthermore,
after extensive internet searches, I have never found any instance of
boats destroyed by osmotic blisters EXCEPT those made entirely by
chopper gun applied glass.

I haven't either. Typically osmotic blistering destroys the gelcoat, not
the underlying laminates.

Max

GelCoat Blisters
 

"DSK" wrote in message
. ..
Some of the Valiants and Uniflites (power boats) lost more than that.
Some
are virtually unmarketable today.

Really? AFAIK both change hands at somewhat higher than average prices.
Generally regarded as pretty good boats.

We had two examples here. Both were larger Uniflite cruisers, both severely
blistered and repaired, and neither has sold. Both have been on the market
for over 5 years at lower-than-market prices.

Maxprop wrote:
Someone came up with the bright idea that using a layer of asbestos in
the hulls would make them fireproof. Around the same time, they even
used asbestos fibers in the chopper guns. Asbestos, it seems, is
hygroscopic as hell, thus the blisters. The Uniflites and Valiants in
question all had asbestos in their hulls.

???

Never heard this.

Uniflite built boats for the military, which required fire-retardant
*resin* to be used in the hull lay-up. This resin turned out to be less
imprevious to water than they realized.

The same layup schedule used for the military boats was used for
reacreational production boats--both Uniflites and Uniflite-built
Valiants--as well. A boatbuilder at a boat show once told me that
"pulverized asbestos" was used in the resins as a fire-retardant, and
probably resulted in the osmotic blistering tendencies of the boats.

... Additionally many yards refused to repair the blisters due to the
asbestos hazard from the grinding.

Never heard this either.

.... So lots of those old boats became virtually unmarketable.

Actually, a Uniflite and 2 Valiants have been sold in our marina within
the past year and a half. One of the Valiants sold almost overnight for
the ask price, which I thought was rather high.

Are you just spreading this rumor because you want to buy a Valiant and
want to get teh price down?

Do you think spreading a rumor on Usenet would actually have any more effect
than a drop of water in the ocean?

See Bubble's reference in his response post. There are others if you don't
mind doing the search.

Max

GelCoat Blisters
 

Really? AFAIK both change hands at somewhat higher than average prices.
Generally regarded as pretty good boats.


Maxprop wrote:
We had two examples here. Both were larger Uniflite cruisers, both severely
blistered and repaired, and neither has sold. Both have been on the market
for over 5 years at lower-than-market prices.


Interesting. Maybe a re-estimate of "market prices" is in order.




The same layup schedule used for the military boats was used for
reacreational production boats--both Uniflites and Uniflite-built
Valiants--as well. A boatbuilder at a boat show once told me that
"pulverized asbestos" was used in the resins as a fire-retardant, and
probably resulted in the osmotic blistering tendencies of the boats.


If so, that could well be the result. I've never seen any
documentation on the nature of the fire-retardant material used.



Are you just spreading this rumor because you want to buy a Valiant and
want to get teh price down?


Do you think spreading a rumor on Usenet would actually have any more effect
than a drop of water in the ocean?

Actually, I do indeed. It's a small world. And if the rumor
was planted intelligently, and backed up by some actual
references, it would certainly pop up on any Google search
for info on old Valiants done by would-be Valiant buyers.

DSK

GelCoat Blisters
 

"DSK" wrote in message

Actually, I do indeed. It's a small world. And if the rumor was planted
intelligently, and backed up by some actual references, it would certainly
pop up on any Google search for info on old Valiants done by would-be
Valiant buyers.

To answer your first question: no, I'm not in the market for an older
Valiant. Or a newer one. While I would certainly steer clear of one of the
fire retardant models, I'm just not fond of Valiants. Some say they are
great cruisers, and they may be. In the same price range there are many
other boats I'd be more inclined to investigate as my next boat.

Max