Roger Long wrote:

I'm probably going to go to a wipe on coating because my
boat will probably need paint in five years anyway due to PO caused
damage. Looking at it closely, I think it may be a boat that came out
of the mold with surface problems and had a new gel coat applied
immediately. Buffing is also something I have to hire out.

When the old gel coat starts getting thin, why not just have
new gel coat sprayed on and buffed out? We hit a rock
with our power boat last year and had a 6' x 1" gash
repaired. As part of the repairs, they resprayed the entire
bottom of the boat with gel coat, sanded it smooth, and then
buffed it out. The cost on a 21' boat was not prohibitive
($3700 including the fiberglass repairs).

There may be a very good reason to not re-gelcoat, but it
eludes me at the moment.

Don W.

"Don W" wrote
There may be a very good reason to not re-gelcoat, but it eludes me
at the moment.

Gee, extrapolating up for size, that works out to over 1/3 of the
purchase price of our used 32 foot sailboat or, about the price of a
whole new set of sails, complete with the spinnaker we don't have.
Or, I could redo all the rigging, replace the plastic portlights with
metal, add a diesel heater and modify the engine cooling system for
late (freezing nights) season operation and have something left over
for more electronics.

In my world at least, that counts as a reason.

--

Roger Long

Hi Roger,

I think that you are extrapolating based on the cost of
fixing a 9.14' x 1.5" gash in the bottom of your 32' boat
and _then_ re-gelcoating Note that the gash was entirely
through the fiberglass, not superficial. The only thing
that kept the boat from sinking was the inner hull.

I have no idea what the cost of spraying, leveling and
buffing the gelcoat would have been by itself, but I doubt
it would have been nearly as much.

How much do you expect to spend to have the hull sanded,
faired, epoxy primed, and then two coats of 2-part epoxy
paint professionally applied? I'll bet it doesn't come to
much difference by the time you're done, since much of the
labor is in the prep.

But I've been wrong before ;-)

Don W.

Roger Long wrote:

Gee, extrapolating up for size, that works out to over 1/3 of the
purchase price of our used 32 foot sailboat or, about the price of a
whole new set of sails, complete with the spinnaker we don't have.
Or, I could redo all the rigging, replace the plastic portlights with
metal, add a diesel heater and modify the engine cooling system for
late (freezing nights) season operation and have something left over
for more electronics.

In my world at least, that counts as a reason.