Just got my boat on hard. What kind of hull work do I need to do? Pics.

[Eihli]

This is my first boat, just started sailing last month. So all of this is very foreign to me.

I had planned on sanding it down to the gel coat, putting an epoxy barrier, then paint. The owner of the boatyard suggests just putting on a couple coats of paint and leaving it at that. Whatever I do I need to decide asap because they are charging me $20/day after Thursday to keep it on land. I'm hesitant to start work on repairing the blisters because everything I read says it requires lots of drying time. Since it's suppose to rain Thursday-Sunday, it could get expensive waiting for those things to dry out.

I apologize for the pictures being taken with a camera phone, I forgot my camera at the house.

Thanks for any tips/advice. I guess the worst thing that can happen is I do what the boatyard guy says and put a couple coats of paint in there and if it's ends up being a problem, sand it down next year. One more year like this won't hurt the hull structure I guess right?

I know there are tons of posts on blistering so I'm not asking for a walk through of blister repair if that's all I need to do. But just curious if it's worth repairing them at all since there aren't many, and wondering what type of paint I should use. I don't know what kind it has on there now but the boatyard owner says it's soft. Also, when I started scraping off the inboard shaft, I think i knocked off some a Zinc thing. Should I replace that before I put her back in the water?










I couldn't figure out what this is. It's just a bulge with a screw in it. Is that just covering up some old through-hull that is no longer in use? There are also a few small bulges like this that I couldn't get a clear picture of. Are those blisters that are waiting to burst?




I'm guessing this is intake for the inboard?



Thanks again for any help.

[badsanta]

I'm not sure they are blisters. Did the boat yard or surveyor say they are blisters? Other than that be sure to check all thru hull valves. Make sure they work and move smoothly. Grab hold of the prop and try to move it up, down and sideways, if loose you may have to replace the shaft bearing. Replace the zincs. If they are blisters, you can’t fix them in a weekend. Talk to the dock master and see what kind of agreement you can get.

[CalebD]

Eihli,
I have seen worse hulls and agree with previous post that those do not look like classic blisters. 'Blisters' usually manifest themselves as a bulge (with or without a pimple) that indicate moisture and rotting of the laminate underneath. Yours look more like paint buildup that has cracked and pieces have fallen out (a potential precursor to blisters). Due to the poor quality of the photo it is hard to tell what is inside the missing chips of paint. It could be sea growth that needs to be cleaned/sanded off and you may need to find and remove all the loose chips, sand them down a bit and re-coat with epoxy prior to painting. It would not be a bad idea to do a barrier coat job but that still might be able to wait until next winter. In a pinch you could use MarineTex putty to fill the chips in which is not optimal but would likely get you through 1 (or several) seasons.

The round brown object does look like a water strainer for the inboard engine and needs to be cleaned up (clear holes so water can get through). The zinc is usually located at the outboard end of the shaft not inboard.

Soft paints are usually called 'ablative' paints which wear away over the season (to some extent). Your profile does not indicate what waters your boat will be in so the best I can tell you is to get an ablative paint that your local marine store recommends.

The previous post also mentioned a surveyor. You did get the boat surveyed before you bought it, didn't you? If not then you can ask for free opinions in your boat yard (and there will be many as there are here) or you can shell out the extra 200 - $350 for a surveyor to tell you what SHOULD be fixed on the boat (in their not so humble opinion). You probably need a survey in order to get insurance on the boat anyway. In your position it is money well spent if you do it.

Congrats on your new boat and good luck.

[Eihli]

Oh I meant to mention, I think those open spots came after I scraped off the barnacles. Almost like the barnacles had attached themselves to the paint so strong that they peeled the paint off with them. What's underneath looks to me like the same texture of fiberglass, but a slightly darker color. The boat was so cheap that a survey didn't seem reasonable. I'm sailing around Southwest Louisiana, brackish to salt water.

[badsanta]

No such thing as a cheap boat, no matter how small old or new. Cheap rhymes with heap. Well, you pay a lot for new with a few problems or you buy cheap and fix everything and still pay a lot, but in the end you know where everything is and how to fix it. I like my heap; it was cheaper than my ex which rhymes with sex, But No matter how much money I put in that one it wondered around. And I still didn’t well you know. At least when I leave my boat, it's still there when I get back and does what I ask and is forgiving. I used to wonder why every where I went, there was some guy alone living on a boat, me thinks I see a connection.

[chucklesR]

Sand off the loose stuff, feather and fair as well as you can, paint it with what the yard recommends and relaunch.
Tell us how you fixed that 6 foot draft problem.

[Eihli]

Originally Posted by chucklesR

Sand off the loose stuff, feather and fair as well as you can, paint it with what the yard recommends and relaunch.
Tell us how you fixed that 6 foot draft problem.

*shrug* I guess both my depth finder and my drop line were inaccurate to the same degree. I dropped it in calm water so I don't think current would have caused a 1.5 foot discrepancy in my weighted line. Maybe I was on a ridge, the depth finder is mounted to the side of the center a couple feet to the side of the bottom of the keel so if there's something narrow sticking up from the bottom it would hit the keel with the depth finder still saying 6 feet.

For a light sanding job, since I'm not doing the entire hull, do I still need protective gear?

[chucklesR]

Yes on the protective gear, the yard might even demand it, you will also need a dustless sander in most areas, marine bottom paint is toxic to life.
Go for as smooth as you can and as many coats and you can get in with the time on hand.
If you get to bare gel/glass invest in a little time and put a barrier coat (interlux or epoxy, your choice) on before painting.

I'd go with a hard non-ablative paint so you can hand scrub the bottom. It keeps it cleaner. Don't let my preference overcome local knowledge - ask the yard operators what the good stuff is for multiyear protection in your area.

Don't forget to check your thru hulls and zincs while out. You run a outboard IIRC so that takes a lot of the to do list. Now is also the time to seriously clean all the old debris of the last owner etc. and cart it off the boat, it's much easier when the dumptser is 15 feet away and down hill.

Glad to hear you don't/won't have the expense of fixing a centerboard.

Unless your depth finder is calibrated for it (most are not) it will always show depth from where it is to the bottom - measure the distance from it to the waterline and mentally add that to what it shows for depth.

I have mine set for calibrated depth and set the alarm for 4 feet (I draw 2 feet boards up). If the alarm sounds I still have a 2 foot safety margin. Figure out what works for you and set the alarm. Calibrate it with a measured stick over the side close to the sounder.

[sailingdog]

That's kind of why most leadlines have a very heavy weight, measured in pounds, not ounces.

Any sanding of bottom paint requires protective gear, if you value your health. You should also have a tarp or ground cloth spread out under the boat to catch the sanding dust.

Also, it depends if you plan to haul the boat each year. A hard modified epoxy bottom paint, like chuckles is suggesting, is a bad idea if you plan to haul each year, since it will "deactivate" the paint if the boat is out of the water for more than a few days.

[midlifesailor]

The bulge with the screw in the center looks to me like a hull mounted anode that's been painted over.