Hull / Gelcoat Damage?

[TonyD]

Not sure what the real damage is here - I noticed this underneath on the hull - gel coat is cracking and chipped off. How much of a problem is this? At this point, is it worth it to re-glass the entire bottom of the hull on an '89 tournament? Also taking into consideration, I might need some transom work in the near future....

 

[TonyD]

Have you ever considered taking up golf?

err, I am not sure I understand the joke...

 

[Meanwhile]

What did that boat hit?

My guess is that whatever was hit, the smashing on the inside is probably worse.

No. To answer directly. But then I have no emotional attachment to the boat. I've seen lots of money spent on project boats.

 

[DennisG01]

That is not impact damage - this looks like a poor job of fiberglass layup. It appears the gel and the resin the glass never fully bonded. My guess is that if you started prying on the gelcoat it would, pretty easily, keep chipping off. The "fix" could be anywhere from "do nothing" to a full gel job or anywhere in between. The first thing I'd want to know is if you keep it in the water at 'Cong, or not.

 

[Hookup1]

How long have you owned this boat? When did you first notice this?

Some boat manufacturer's have had years where gel coat blistering happen on a large part of the hull. This looks like that to me. But I'm not aware of Grady White having a history of this type of failure.

You are in fresh water - correct? Although that shouldn't matter. Lift stored or in the water?

Bottom painted? Was bottom paint ever stripped off? If so was it InterProtect'ed?

Gel coat in new condition has waterproofing properties on the surface. If the surcease is disturbed the gel coat will absorb water. If the gel coat is compromised water will get into the fiberglass and travel. Couple that with winter freezes and it will pop off like these photos.

My guess is someone stripped the bottom paint off, never re-sealed the gel coat and put the boat in the water. You can see the fiberglass layup underneath the delaminating gel coat. Looks like heavy sanding marks too. To fix this you need to soda blast or sandblast all the gel cost off, re-finish the bottom, InterProtect and either finish paint or bottom paint.

The boat may not be worth it to you - not an inexpensive repairs. And if you have a transom repair coming up, the boat nearly sinking, the water in the fuel, cleaning this up. Your not having must luck with this boat!

 

[seasick]

Might be osmosis blisters and if it is, it is close to the worst I've seen. Apparently the blisters burst. If not, whatever it is is extensive and indicates serious fiberglass issues. Worth fixing? probably not especially if you are going to have it done professionally. Do it yourself? Its a big job and that assumes that he hull is structurally sound and that the bad areas can be ground off ,reclassed , and gel coated.
It may be possible to do a not so perfect repair using something like MarineTex or maybe fairing compound followed by paint (not just bottom paint) or gelcoat.

 

[Done-it-again]

Have you ever considered taking up golf?

View attachment 23599

Do you like being an ass or does it come natural?

 

[Punch53]

Tony, looking at the pics you provided at maximum resolution it appears to me that you are looking at an old repair, possibly structural probably cosmetic. It appears that there is compound under the gel coat. Regular body filler is hydroscopic and will crack in the winter when the water inside it freezes. I would inspect the bottom, mark off the area that is in question and see how large it is. After you do that remove the filler with an angle grinder and use a filler that is recommended for use below the waterline. Sand the rest of the bottom and apply several coats of barrier coat and then bottom paint as per the manufactures recommendation.

 

[Hookup1]

Do you like being an ass or does it come natural?

Ok. I apologize and will try to be more helpful?

It would be helpful if TonyD could tell all the people who are trying to help him fix his problem a little more about how it started and when he found it. This doesn’t look like something that happened overnight. Is this a new boat to him?

 

[bFransen]

I'm sorry to say your damage looks a bit rough. Like others have said, some of the pictures appear as if there was a previous repair that didn't bond correctly. That can happen for a number of reasons. At the end of the day, the only real solution that I know of is to remove the area where bonding didn't occur correctly. You can do this a number of ways, grinding, chisel, or other.

To get a good perspective, it may be best to provide a wider perspective in the pictures so that we can see if the issue is local or all over the bottom. A boat from 89 may not be worth a big repair. You may want to patch it and use it while it lasts. If, however, the rest of the boat is in good condition, you may want to invest more time.

I'm not familiar with how a Tournament's transom goes together, but I am in the Grady White transom rebuild club. Frankly, that's an expensive club and it's a lot of work.

 

[TonyD]

That is not impact damage - this looks like a poor job of fiberglass layup. It appears the gel and the resin the glass never fully bonded. My guess is that if you started prying on the gelcoat it would, pretty easily, keep chipping off. The "fix" could be anywhere from "do nothing" to a full gel job or anywhere in between. The first thing I'd want to know is if you keep it in the water at 'Cong, or not.

I can chip the gelcoat off, exposing the fiber glass. Here's my question.. IF I do nothing how much trouble can I get into later on with the fiberglass? Is the glass in trouble of getting damaged and putting a hole in the hull?

I keep the boat in the water during the summer months, well, April through October/November. Then it's on a trailer.

Hookup, Just noticed this, I've had the boat for 16/17 years now. It's an old boat, an '89 Tournament, it's got its warts, not a pretty boat but I enjoy it, my wife enjoys it and now my son has been using it, although I prefer him to have his own boat.
I hadn't noticed the gelcoat cracks chipping off before, it may have been there.. I was thinking maybe it came from the rollers on the trailer..

There is bottom paint on the boat but it was always there when I bought the boat 2nd hand. I never tried blasting the sand off, it's kinda coming off on its own. The boat was used in saltwater, I use it in freshwater although I do trailer it sometimes to Sandy Hook/Highlands and also Freeport, LI.

 

[PointedRose]

If you are up for a winter project, have the space to work, and the tools and willpower, and help from your son, you can fix it. If you plan on paying someone else for the repair, sell it, the cost will not be recovered. Your engine is the most value of the package. The hull without the damage is worth maybe $4-5k? You could find a replacement hull and swap the engine and controls and strip the old boat of anything you can salvage. If you do take on the project, expect to learn a lot through the process and get frustrated regularly.

On your other thread with the storm nearly sinking the boat, I personally don’t think the rain alone caused it, you may have a leaking scupper or drain somewhere to investigate and fix too. With the fuel tank probably needing replacement too, possibly transom issues, this boat may have found the end of the road. Don’t be discouraged though, you can find similar tournaments around and it sounds like you got a lot of years out of it already. There recently was a similarly aged hull in Reno NV posted for under $6k with an old running engine and a trailer and west coast boats are less available and more expensive. In the northeast you can find many replacement options over the next year

 

[DennisG01]

Rollers weren't the cause - it's delamination from water intrusion.

Since you keep it in the water, Tony, this is more of an issue. If you only trailered it in and out every day I would have said don't worry about. So, the issue is that fiberglass can absorb water whereas gelcoat does a pretty good job (well, especially, the newer stuff) of keeping the water out. Even the older gel was better at keeping water out than fiberglass. So, what's going to happen - and has been happening for probably the whole time you've had the boat - is water will continue to seep into the glass and in between the glass/gel causing the delamination that you see.

It's not a particularly "hard" job to do a basic fix here. I assume you'd just want it to be solid and not too worried about aesthetics. It's just a time consuming job and awkward since you're on your back... or maybe your son will do most of the work? In a nutshell, get rough with it - scrape and chip off as much as you can. Then sand (just about any smaller sanding tool can be used... easier to control than something larger) all of the edges until you are POSITIVE that the gelcoat to fiberglass bond is solid. Give the old/exposed fiberglass a quick sand, too.

At this point, there are multiple ways to finish this, but an easy way would be to mix up some epoxy and simply paint a few coats on, letting each one soak in. Epoxy will fully seal everything up, it's easy to work with, and is 100% waterproof. You could even tint the epoxy to closely match the gel, although it won't be perfect. But this will cure the issue and you won't have to worry about future water intrusion. It won't be a perfectly smooth surface, unless you thicken the epoxy and take the time to sand it smooth... but honestly, the slight imperfections that will be there won't cause any performance issues.

To make things easier, you may want to remove the trailer and block the boat.

 

[Hookup1]

DennisG01 laid it out for you. If all you are trying to do is stabilize the hull this is fine.

If possible get inside a garage a shed, scrape and sand aggressively the bottom. Then put some heat in there and try to dry the fiberglass out. Then 5 or 6 coats of something like InterProtect or other 2-part epoxy sealer. It's cheap enough.

Check that transom out while on block and maybe get someone with experience to look at it. If you are not careful it can rip out under power and be left hanging by the controls. More bad things go with that scenario as well.

 

[TonyD]

Rollers weren't the cause - it's delamination from water intrusion.

Since you keep it in the water, Tony, this is more of an issue. If you only trailered it in and out every day I would have said don't worry about. So, the issue is that fiberglass can absorb water whereas gelcoat does a pretty good job (well, especially, the newer stuff) of keeping the water out. Even the older gel was better at keeping water out than fiberglass. So, what's going to happen - and has been happening for probably the whole time you've had the boat - is water will continue to seep into the glass and in between the glass/gel causing the delamination that you see.

It's not a particularly "hard" job to do a basic fix here. I assume you'd just want it to be solid and not too worried about aesthetics. It's just a time consuming job and awkward since you're on your back... or maybe your son will do most of the work? In a nutshell, get rough with it - scrape and chip off as much as you can. Then sand (just about any smaller sanding tool can be used... easier to control than something larger) all of the edges until you are POSITIVE that the gelcoat to fiberglass bond is solid. Give the old/exposed fiberglass a quick sand, too.

At this point, there are multiple ways to finish this, but an easy way would be to mix up some epoxy and simply paint a few coats on, letting each one soak in. Epoxy will fully seal everything up, it's easy to work with, and is 100% waterproof. You could even tint the epoxy to closely match the gel, although it won't be perfect. But this will cure the issue and you won't have to worry about future water intrusion. It won't be a perfectly smooth surface, unless you thicken the epoxy and take the time to sand it smooth... but honestly, the slight imperfections that will be there won't cause any performance issues.

To make things easier, you may want to remove the trailer and block the boat.

Thanks, Dennis! It's a large area so if anything, this will keep me busy for quite some-time. When you say epoxy, are you referring to the west marine 105 epoxy?

 

[DennisG01]

Thanks, Dennis! It's a large area so if anything, this will keep me busy for quite some-time. When you say epoxy, are you referring to the west marine 105 epoxy?

Correct, Tony. Although you wouldn't have to use the "West System" brand. Good stuff, easy to use and good customer support - but it has a price tag to go along with it. You can less expensive epoxy and resin. That said, a gallon will suffice so it's not a huge bill.

 

[Hookup1]

Correct, Tony. Although you wouldn't have to use the "West System" brand. Good stuff, easy to use and good customer support - but it has a price tag to go along with it. You can less expensive epoxy and resin. That said, a gallon will suffice so it's not a huge bill.

Be careful with batch size and speed of hardner. Use a 206 slow or possibly 209 extra slow. Epoxy is exothermic and large batches have a tendency to runaway. Not West System video but similar product and how it’s applied.