I can't believe this!

[cjtpilot]

So I was reading on another forum about leaving your boat sitting in the water during the season is actually bad for your boat at that it even states in the owners manual to not dock your boat for long periods in the water. This supposedly damages the gel coat??? Seriously! Its a boat, last I checked thats what they are built for, WATER. Is this just something with newer boats, metal flake gel coat or WTF??? Also anybody that actually has this in the owners manual please share a pic.

[NoWake]

My only experience with gel coat blisters was on a 1977 correct craft that my family bought in the 80's. It had blisters on the water line when we bought it. PO had it docked on a chemically treated ski lake (a real pretty blue water color). It never affected the performance just cosmetic. We ran it until 91 when we got the comp. From 10ft you couldn't see the blisters, but after a weekend in the water made buffing and waxing not so much fun. I think this is a thing of the past but I'm no expert

[CornRickey]

Is not a thing of the past. Fiberglass is porous and so is gelcoat. The trapped water reacts with the uncured resinsin the glass and expands causing the blisters. Google epoxy seal coats / fiberglass blistering repairs. There is a ton of info out there.

[NoWake]

Well that just makes my day! Guess I was sharing an anecdotal experience. Funny to remember we couldn't google back then.

[CJD]

If you go to any marina and talk to the "big boat" owners, you will find this is common knowledge. Glass boats that sit in the water full time get pulled every season or two and have the hulls cleaned, repaired and painted to prevent it...but blistering is inevitable. Few owners leave ski boats in the water full time, so the topic rarely comes up in our circles. In fact, I have never seen a ski/wake boat left in the water more than a week or so while the lift is fixed.

[SquamInboards]

While this can happen, it does not happen to the majority of boats. I worked at a marina for a bunch of years and washed the bottoms of many, many boats at the end of the season. If we saw blisters on a boat newer than 10 years, it was rare. In ONE instance, a 2-year old boat developed blisters and the manufacturer actually paid for the repair. But we had lots of boats that were anywhere from 10 to 30 years old with no blisters. It seems to be a factor of how the gelcoat was applied, and whether any moisture is able to get into the fiberglass itself. Which, eventually, it does in every boat.

Unsurprisingly, blisters were more common on the 'budget-brand' boats like Bayliner, Sunbird, Stingray, Tahoe, and on especially old boats that tend to get beaten to death, like Whalers from the 70's.

On my lake it is common practice to leave boats in from May-October uninterrupted. This is not just ski boats, but every kind of boat, from 13' Whalers to 25' cuddies (about the biggest thing on my lake).

[CJD]

His boat is a '92, so it's in the range you are talking about for being susceptible. In the southern states blistering is pretty common. Granted, any blistering while a boat is under warranty will be covered. Where are you that you can float your ski boat all summer? Here in Texas you'll get a scum line that cannot be buffed out if your boat stays in the water more than a few days.

[cjtpilot]

Oh I can't leave my current boat in since I don't have a slip. Growing up we had a cottage and dock that was in a channel off the lake and we left it in from May through Oct in northern IN. This was just mainly my question I got from the Malibu forum where they were completely freaking out about boats being only a couple years old and how bad it is for them. Guess I won't be looking at a Malibu when I upgrade. lol

His boat is a '92, so it's in the range you are talking about for being susceptible. In the southern states blistering is pretty common. Granted, any blistering while a boat is under warranty will be covered. Where are you that you can float your ski boat all summer? Here in Texas you'll get a scum line that cannot be buffed out if your boat stays in the water more than a few days.

[SquamInboards]

His boat is a '92, so it's in the range you are talking about for being susceptible. In the southern states blistering is pretty common. Granted, any blistering while a boat is under warranty will be covered. Where are you that you can float your ski boat all summer? Here in Texas you'll get a scum line that cannot be buffed out if your boat stays in the water more than a few days.

I'm in New Hampshire, and lucky enough to have a dock where I can keep the boat. The lake I'm on has very little transient boat traffic - most of the boats are kept on the lake, there's very limited public access, and the one main public ramp / parking lot is often filled with bass fishermen at 5:30am before anyone else has a chance. Sucks if you want to spend the day on the lake with your family, the bass fishermen take it up for themselves most weekends.

The water in our lake does stain the hull, but it comes off with a bit of 'Slimy Grimy' at the season's end. I've applied far more of that to boat bottoms than I ever care to think about. Nasty stuff, but effective. It's funny, the boats in the river come in stained far worse than the boats out on the lake. But there are some that come from protected coves where the water is more stagnant, also very stained and with lots of aquatic growth.

[Zim]

Blisters can most certainly become a problem for new boats. It's best not to leave a boat in the water full time, and if you have to, bottom paint or some other type of prep work should be done to keep this from happening. It doesn't matter how new or old the boat is, they all have the same gel coat and are susceptible to the problem. I was just reading about this on the MC forums....

http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/showthread.php?t=65868

Here's a picture of what the "blisters" look like.

http://i.imgur.com/DXXDG1Gl.jpg

[CJD]

Glad to hear it's not as common up north. I imagine the high temps down here accelerate blistering...

[mlaosa]

I totally agree with you CJD! I'm in Texas too and growing up on lake Austin, my grandparents would leave the old mastercraft in a "wet" slip year around. Never seemed to affect the gel coat but man was it a pain to clean the water line and below when we pulled it out twice a year! I wouldn't dare continuously leave my supra in the water all year, much less a summer.

[SquamInboards]

Blisters can most certainly become a problem for new boats. It's best not to leave a boat in the water full time, and if you have to, bottom paint or some other type of prep work should be done to keep this from happening. It doesn't matter how new or old the boat is, they all have the same gel coat and are susceptible to the problem. I was just reading about this on the MC forums....

http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/showthread.php?t=65868



I agree that blisters can happen on new boats, but all I'm saying is that it shouldn't happen. It is a common practice in many places to leave a boat in the water for months at a time, and most boats do not develop blisters under those circumstances. In my opinion, something's not right if there are blisters appearing from simply leaving a boat in the water.

Of course, if you have a choice, take the boat out! Nothing good can happen to a boat sitting in the water. I would love to have a lift if I could! But I don't, and my boat has spent 26 years in the water and it's fine, along with the huge majority of boats I've seen the underside of, which is in the thousands.

[Zim]

I agree that blisters can happen on new boats, but all I'm saying is that it shouldn't happen. It is a common practice in many places to leave a boat in the water for months at a time, and most boats do not develop blisters under those circumstances. In my opinion, something's not right if there are blisters appearing from simply leaving a boat in the water.

Of course, if you have a choice, take the boat out! Nothing good can happen to a boat sitting in the water. I would love to have a lift if I could! But I don't, and my boat has spent 26 years in the water and it's fine, along with the huge majority of boats I've seen the underside of, which is in the thousands.

But it doesn't matter how new or old the boat is. It's not about the quality or newness of gelcoat or fiberglass. The reason this happens is because the gel and fiberglass has tiny pores in it that allow osmosis. New or old, Supra or Bayliner, every single boat is susceptible to the exact same condition regardless of being in the water for a weekend or a year. It's just something that happens with fiberglass and gel-coat. The properties of these materials don't change just because the boat is newer or older, or in a warmer climate or colder climate. It's all the same.

[SquamInboards]

But it doesn't matter how new or old the boat is. It's not about the quality or newness of gelcoat or fiberglass. The reason this happens is because the gel and fiberglass has tiny pores in it that allow osmosis. New or old, Supra or Bayliner, every single boat is susceptible to the exact same condition regardless of being in the water for a weekend or a year. It's just something that happens with fiberglass and gel-coat. The properties of these materials don't change just because the boat is newer or older, or in a warmer climate or colder climate. It's all the same.

But clearly there are variables that cause some boats to develop blisters, while others don't. If all boats were created exactly equally, they would all develop (or not develop) blisters at the same rate under the same conditions.

All cars do not rust at the same rate, either; it varies by manufacturer, and by locations (e.g. salted roads). Yet every steel car is susceptible to rust.

[CornRickey]

The water reacts with uncured resins and cause the blisters. I'm thinking Friday boats are the most susceptible.

[DAFF]

The largest factor of blisters is the technique and quality in laying the glass and the thickness of the layers. That blister pic from the MC is a case where the boat should be deemed unfit, it is approaching the point where the structural integrity of the hull has been weekend. Most appear as little pimples and are totally harmless and found in most larger boats.

Myself leaving the boat in the water will greatly age the boat. I prefer to trailer it and keep it inside. Blisters are a the small part of the problem, the sun, wind, rain, water infiltration of the foam and theft are others which trump the blister stuff.