Aquarius Sail Owners

Today I took my foils out of the trailer box and the paint had bubbled. What the heck caused that? One foil is original and one is less than a year old.

Now, where do I go from here?

Eric,

Not totally sure why the paint woud have bubbled, although a few questions come to mind. How hot do you think it could have been in the sailbox? Were the boards put away wet?
I will see what suggestions Tom has for you.

Matt,

I would have to asume that it gets well into the 100's in that box, after all, this is way south Forida.
It is unlikely that I put the boards away wet however we just concluded rainy season.... There could have been water that seeped into the box.(?)

Thank you,

Eric

PS, the new tramps are beautiful!

Eric,

A couple of questions about the bisters. How large are they? Are they blisters in the top coat only? If you break one open are they dry inside?
Where are these blisters located and are they on both boards?
Also do you know if the boards were ever painted at some time?
We have had a few problems with the very first boat using a different paint system. In those cases the paint was a well know marine paint and it developed very tiny bumbs between the top coat and primer ,when we used a needle and puntured them a very small liquid drop appeared.

The only place we saw these bumps was in the area of the trailer cradles contacted the hull. The carpet was a long looped type and held water extremely well.

We sanded off the bumps, re-applied primer and top coat and changed the carpet to a shot napped bonded back material. Problem was solved and never came back.

I am in the process of re-gelcoating an entire 24' powerboat to avoid the exact same thing you are experiencing...Even Awlgrip...the undisputed king of marine paints... will form blisters if left in constant contact
with water (or something wet like carpeted trailer bunks) for an extended period of time.

If anyone wants to go to the hassle of re-gel coating their boat there is a product out by Hawkeye Industries Inc. called Duratec Polyester Clear Hi-gloss Additive...you mix it with no wax gelcoat 50/50, catalyze to their specs and you can spray it in a conventional cup gun.

The Duratec lowers the viscosity so it will spray from your gun (I did not have to reduce it at all). While it has a light orange peel it easily sands out with 400/600/1000 on a DA and follow up with Buff Magic.

I am doing large areas...having to mix multiple batches cleaning the gun between each batch so it was harder to keep a really good wet edge. Catalyst has to be "spot on" or you will be striping your gun down when the gelcoat goes off "in" your gun. You need a big compressor...mine can put out 13.5 CFM@ 175 PSI with an 80 gallon tank...I wouldn't want anything much smaller...there is no time for the compressor to "catch up"...once the gelcoat is mixed...and the clock is ticking you have just enough time to empty the quart gun...with no time to spare.

On a Catamaran hull it would work much better (because of the smaller area involved) and give a finish that required minimum sanding...or if you are really good, and have a place to shoot it inside, you probably wouldn't have to sand at all for a high gloss finish...for something like rudders and dagger boards it would be ideal....as with any re-finishing project, preperation is the key to a good looking finish product.

All this is assuming that your boat/rudders/boards were originally done with gelcoat and not a paint system. Putting gelcoat over paint would be a nightmare as the styrene and MEKP would most likely lift the paint, the mess that would follow... I don't even want to go there...

After having the experience of doing this 24' Seabird I would consider re-gelcoating my SC 17 without hesitation. While this process will give an excellent finsihed product it is not "quick" nor "easy"

Regards,
Bob

Bob,

Looks like you have taken on quite the project!

Re-Gelcoating a boat is a tough process no mater what size the boat is. I agree with you that you shouldn't attempt regelcoating on a boat that was painted for the reasons that you mentioned along with the fact that all of the ARC/RC hulls built since ~1990 have been epoxy and there are not many gelcoats that will remain bonded to an epoxy laminate.

Since our initial experience with blisters that Tom had mentioned, we have changed the way we finish the hulls, including both the primers and paints. With this change we have had no problems with painted hulls that remain in contact with a wet enviroment for extended periods of time. That being said, it will always be better for the the life of the paint if it can be stored dry and out of constant contact with water.

In Eric's case I wouldn't hesitate to sand down the bumps, reprime and paint the boards again. My guess would be that the problem will go away. In regards to refinishing your SC17, I personally would sand it down a little bit (not through the gelcoat), then prime and paint it. We have done this on numerous boats over the years and the sanded gelcoat provides a great base for the primers to be applied to. I am also partial to the reduction in fading and staining you get with paints compared to gelcoats, not to metion the potential weight savings.

Matt,

So you say that all ARC/RC hulls built since 1990 are epoxy…what about the Supercat series? My Supercat 17 is a 1994…was that a polyester laminate /gelcoat or Epoxy laminate/paint? Thanks…

Regards,
Bob

Bob,

All ARC /RC models have been built with epoxy resin laminates. If you have a gel coat SUPERCAT it was built with vinyl ester resin.

Tom

Thanks for the reply...I always "assumed" it has a gel coat finish, now you have me wondering...Just to make sure I understand you correctly….were all Supercat 17's back in 1994 built with a Gelcoat finish? Or were some painted?...and if some were painted, what is the best way to test it to determine which one it is? Gelcoat or Paint?

Hull# ******** and Hull # *********

Regards,
Bob

Bob,

The SC17 should be gel coat. There is the possobility that someone could have painted it later on.
We never painted vinyl ester laminate SC17's.

Tom

Thanks for clarifying the gelcoat/paint issue for me...I am glad to hear my boat is laminated with vinyl ester resin and not polyester. That I wasn't aware of ...what a nice "gift" ...LOL...learn something new every day.
Regards,
Bob