[Public-List] Barrier Coats and Blisters

[Jeffrey]

Hi Everyone,

I bought the boat 16 months ago, and will be putting it in the water for the
first time in two or three years. I've begun the process of removing VC17
bottom paint so I can apply something suitable for salt water.  Under the
VC17 I'm seeing what looks to be a gray barrier coat, and lots of little
blisters, all less than 1/4 inch. The blisters are not wet or pop-able. I
can't tell if the are old, older than the barrier coat or came after the
barrier coat.

Anyway, I need to decide what to do.  From all my reading on the subject,
barrier coats are the way to go, based on common consensus. A couple weeks
ago my plan was to strip off the paint to gelcoat, and add an epoxy barrier
coat before repainting. Since then I've found these small blisters, and what
appears to be a previously applied barrier coat. I went and read every
single email in our mailing list email archives with anything to do with
blisters and barrier coats. It would seem A30s don't like barrier coats.
Many posts of people adding barrier coats only to get blisters shortly
afterwards. Many in the list who don't have barrier coats - have no
blisters.

Some of the emails I had read in the archive were fairly old, and I'm
wondering if the opinion is any different today. Are there any folks out
there that had blister problems with bare gelcoat, then added an epoxy
barrier coat and it solved the problem? Do I...


   1. strip the barrier coat and repaint (perhaps fill some of the little
   craters first),
   2. strip barrier coat and add new 2009 technology barrier coat,
   3. leave the present barrier coat and repaint.


If anyone is interested, I've got a photo of the blistered hull here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/7yBDtHzbaYagcz09224_WQ?feat=directlink

-- 
-jeff
_________________
___________________________________
1965 Alberg 30 #116
http://picasaweb.google.com/fongemie