I have blisters - thousands of them

[Terry]

Mine sits in salt water for extended periods of time and I have no blisters.
I have an '03 26M, one of the first 100 (hull #73) with no protection other than a few good coats of wax each season and regular cleaning. I take it out for a couple days to clean it, re-wax, then back in she goes for another six weeks. (I pay for wet slip moorage.) I have had mine sit in the salt water for 3-6 months per season using just wax, albeit a good one (VS721 Bottom Wax from Aurora). Of course it sits in my driveway for 6-8 months of the year.
That blisters are starting to show on the newer boats indicates to me a quality control issue that needs to be addressed immediately before it translates into decreased sales. I think it would negatively impact the MacGregor reputation if it was allowed to go on and folks will buy something else, I know I would. Something is not right here.

[DaveB]

Terry, anything can happen to a layup on the gelcoat.
Didn't roll out the Resin in glass to get rid of air bubbles, Two strong Hardner in mix that should have been disgarded,didn't squige the resin out, humidity to high, someone had a bad day and just let it happen.
List goes on and in high production boats that are built on low cost productions ...this can and will happen often.
As I mentioned before, layup on the first cloth has to be very tight to gelcoat or blister will occur, Gelcoat does obsorb water and the more bubbles you have between gel and cloth the more it will cause bigger bubbles once chemical reaction takes place between the gelcoat and glass.
You are lucky to get away with just waxing your hull being in salt water for the time you mention without any apoxy barrier coating.
I would look a lot closer at your hull and take a mositure reading of the hull to prevent any future problems.
Dave

Mine sits in salt water for extended periods of time and I have no blisters.
I have an '03 26M, one of the first 100 (hull #73) with no protection other than a few good coats of wax each season and regular cleaning. I take it out for a couple days to clean it, re-wax, then back in she goes for another six weeks. (I pay for wet slip moorage.) I have had mine sit in the salt water for 3-6 months per season using just wax, albeit a good one (VS721 Bottom Wax from Aurora). Of course it sits in my driveway for 6-8 months of the year.
That blisters are starting to show on the newer boats indicates to me a quality control issue that needs to be addressed immediately before it translates into decreased sales. I think it would negatively impact the MacGregor reputation if it was allowed to go on and folks will buy something else, I know I would. Something is not right here.

[c130king]

The entire bottom looks and feels like a big football too.

Hmmm.

This describes my bottom as well.

Alright, stop snickering, I am talking about my boat, not my personal hygiene.

It was kept in fresh water by PO in Florida for just about 2 years. When I cleaned off the slime it had a bottom paint that felt "thick" and with a texture kinda/sorta like "a football".

Now I wonder if it had blisters and the PO painted over them...

What is the "normal" texture of a boat with a "bottom paint"? Should it be very smooth or have a "texture" to it?

Still seems to sail just fine.

I will do some research and when I get back to the US I may try to remove the paint, check for and possibly repair blisters if necessary, and then repaint.

Cheers,
Jim

[tangentair]

I just read an article about "refurbishing a waterlogged 49-foot yacht is no easy task, and completing the job overseas is even more difficult." by a helo pilot and his wife while they were working in UAE in this month's PMM Actually I was interested in the electric motors article but anyway they had a bottom painted fiberglass hull that they ended up removing all of the gel coat. I wouldn't buy the magazine for the article but if your in Boarders or hanging out at the airport and Passage Maker Mag is in the rack it might be worth a look see.

[Bill Earnhardt]

I have the same football texture hull on my 06, I discovered it oct 07, my Mac was in Lake Tahoe for 6 months.
(one of the cleanest lakes in the country) I had thought it was caused by the "starbright" I had used to clean the bottom.
But I see many of you seem to have the same problem. I really do not know what to do about it. The Mac has been in Lake Tahoe for the last 6 months again this year, and I'll be taking her out later this month, after cleaning, I'll see if it has gotten worse.

[Tahoe Jack]

You really should call all your recent girl friends and try to sort out who is responsible....and broadcast alert everyone. Hope meds work.

[James V]

Did anybody that has blisters put on the water barrier paint on the bottom before putting on anti-fouling paint?

I think that this is recommended by the factory.

[capncarp]

I bought my X new in 99. I had it in a fresh water slip for 5 month. I had bottom paint on it also. It had hundreds of blisters when I hauled it. It cost me 3k to fix it. Macgregor wouldn't pay a thing. Later research has shown that even the most expensive gelcoat can blister in a short period of time. If you don't get them your lucky. Gelcoat is porous. I now have a barrier coat on it.

Sea Dreams,
99X

[Kim Forrester]

I too have blisters as described. Boat was delivered new in April. Placed on the water in June; high mountain lake in western Colorado. Cleaned the bottom once during the summer and just now (10 October) pulled it out of the water. Cleaning and waxing preping for the winter in San Carlos. Waxing the bottom noticed numerous pipple type blisters as described in the original post. After much research via the internet etc, etc, I determined that in many cases "the cure is worse than the illness". However, per the advice of my lawyer, I have started the documentation process and will contact the dealer and manufacture. Unfortunately (and I hate to be negative) it's been my experience that neither of them gives a darn. "Out of sight, out of mind"!!

In another post, someday, I will describe all of the problems I have discoverd and fixed myself since delivery. Very disapointing but she is like some girl friends I have had over the years, "A hull of a lot of up-keep and problems, but a hull of a lot of FUN"!!!

Good luck to all

[Kim Forrester]

Hey Tahoe Jack

At my age, it doesn't matter anymore!!

[tangentair]

.....but she is like some girl friends I have had over the years, "A hull of a lot of up-keep and problems, but a hull of a lot of FUN"!!!

Truer words

but in my perspective, some men like the stimulation that comes from - with the least amount of effort - laying her over on her side, bracing their legs and listen to the screaming of the rigging,
some men like to tweek and maintain, primping her out and then fondly rubbing out those fine warm woods and carressing those other special tweeks that they have discovered together,
still other prefer her versatiliy and flexability and willingness to take their affair to many different and seemingly exotic places.

I could go on but while as Thoreau said “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." and Sandberg (more to the point of this thread) said "Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep." But it was Mitchner who said "The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality."

Fix the blisters and keep on sailing.

"There is nothing -- absolute NOTHING -- half so much worth doing as simply messing-about in boats." to which I would add the prepositional phrase "accompanied by women."

[Russ]

So what if I don't "fix" the blisters? Besides for slowing the boat down, what do they hurt?

From the posts above, it would seem this is more common than it should be. I've never sailed in high elevation fresh water, but that doesn't seem like an excuse for poor gelcoat.

[daydreamerbob]

Russ - i think you should fix them - perhaps they are "Pox"? just started learning about pox in an inspecting boats book i have - pox are worse than blisters.

[James V]

Water comming into the boat through the hull will happen in the long run if the blisters are not fixed. This takes a long time and the boat needs to stay in the water.

Try to keep the boat out of the water for a while, clean off the bottom paint and put on a barrier coat the bottom paint.

[capncarp]

James is right. You could put on a barrier coat instead of fixing them. This is a short term repair however. Barrier coats don't last forever and you still would have a rough hull. The problems with blisters is that eventually the incoming water delaminates the fiberglass layers. Once that happens there is no fix. With hundreds of blisters you can see that a delamination over the bottom of the boat is bad. Some boats spend a lifetime with no bottom prep and never get blisters. Others get them when it rains. There is no reason for that but it's true. I learned the expensive way.
Glenn,
Sea Dreams
99X