Are you an expert boat painter? Can you solve with my Gel Coat problem?
Last year I prepared a severely abused Hobie Cat 16 sailboat. One had 3 very large holes in the bottom. The other hull had a huge de-lamination area with manny holes. I spent 4 months sanding, and a lot of fiberglass and resin work. I sprayed 4 layers of wax-less gel coat followed by 3 layers of wax gel coat.
Sailed this newly repaired Hobie 16 several times last year. Stored it disassembled in my garage last fall, winter and spring I took the Hobie 16 out of the water after each sailing and stored it in my driveway. No gel coat bubbles noted at that time.This spring I moored the Hobie 16 at a freshwater lake and kept it there in the water for 3 straight months and sailed it several times this summer.
On October 1st I removed the Hobie 16 and took it apart to reveal the many gel coat bubbles many of witch contain water. Note that there were no gel coat bubbles in the areas above the water line,
After 3 months of sailing and sitting in the water one hull had about 1 cup of water and the other hull was dry. Yet both hull have the same amount of bubbling.
What do you think that I did wrong?
Did I not let the fiberglass hulls dry out completely before spraying?
My plan now is to re-sand the hulls, open up the port holes, store them in the garage all fall, winter and spring and then re gel coat next spring.
What do you think?
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