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Looking to buy a 20 year old Hunter 450 CC. Boat is polished and nice topside, but the liner inside has spots that draw attention. I've posted an example. Spots are on the ceiling and sides throughout interior. At first I thought they were water damage, then thought they may be repairs of water damage or removed fixtures.
I have no experience (yet) with maintenance or repair of large boats. The patches do remind me of fiberglass car repairs from my youth, but I recall a different color. Could someone school me a bit here?
Probably your best bet in any case. It's pretty hard to diagnose something like that from a lo-res tiny photo.
I assume that's a molded gelcoated liner section? (again hard to be sure from the pic) If so it's quite odd, it could be a bad gelcoat match, or some sort of staining from another source.
What corresponds top side to the spots? Any seams visible around the spots? Is the liner a cloth material? Maybe stains from some type of chemical spray? Are the decks solid?
I uploaded an 1885x1060 image. The expanded thumb is 800x450 which shows the problem pretty clearly. The actual surface is flat and smooth to the touch with no visible seams other than gradual blending of the color change. Surface is solid fiberglass or similar material in a molded shell.
I got opinions from two credible professionals: first was that it is "from pulling from the original mold when the liner was made - not repairs ... seen it on quite a few boats". Second opinion from a boat repair pro seeing full res pictures is that it is just a repair made using a resin that did not match surrounding color.
20+ of the splotches appear in the aft cabin on various vertical and horizontal surfaces spread around the entire cabin. There are a handful of similar splotches forward in saloon. Most splotches are near ports and hatches, but some are in middle of flat surfaces, vertical and horizontal.
I walked the topside pretty thoroughly. It looked like it was in good shape and I did not feel any soft spots. If fact, I was surprised at the time that it was much brighter white than I would expect from a boat that old.
Maybe the gel coat blend was contaminated or the mixing gun was clogged? If that is the case I'm surprised it passed Hunter's quality control. With so many splotches I tend to discount the repair theory.
Edit: On second thought could these be repairs due to a lighting hit? I've read that lighting will sometimes blow tiny holes in the hull. Has the hull/top sides been painted? Just a WAG.
That the issue is not localized, and spread somewhat randomly throughout the boat, is odd.
Almost seems like a manufacturing flaw, something with the molding of the parts. I wonder if Hunter would respond with any info regarding this, I suppose it may have been limited to a single pull from the tooling.
If that is all gelcoat and randomly around the boat... either a lot of poorly matched repairs, or a pretty funky layup for sure. Sorry when I saw the picture I thought leaks too, but if its gel that looks like that, it sure seems a stumper.
I've got a few of those on my Hunter (not as many as you posted). I think they are touched up areas from the factory and the color doesn't really match the what the liner is molded of and it also fades. Unscrew one of the panels and see what is behind it, all there is a gap there to the deck.
My nickel says these were touch ups, done at the factory, to an imperfect mold. The touch ups aged differently than the molded material.
Does her current owner have anything to add? Is the current owner, her first owner?
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