MacGregorSailors.com

I bought a brand new Mac 26M which spent only 83 days in fresh water.
After bottom cleaning in the fall about 40% of the bottom has gelcoat blisters.
I read the small print that says Macgregor is not responsible for gelcoat issues but is this uncommon? My brother has a 20 year old boat that stays in the same lake all year for 12 of those years and doesn't have blister 1. Is this the standard quality of a Macgregor or do I have a lemon? Any recommendations on what to do?
Appreciate the help as I am a first time boat owner.

It's normal.Just have the bottom painted with epoxy

PES,

Do a search on "Blisters" and you will see lots of info on this topic. The more you know the less you will stress...maybe.

Good Luck,
Jim

PES,

Can you give your location?

And can you take pictures for us to see? (include a ruled line or two so we can see dimensions.)

Was the bottom original or painted with anything? Did you ground your boat often or never?

Must be a Lemon, perhaps your boat was made on a Monday morning after the staff had a weekend party and drinking binge. OK, so a few Macs have blister problems. I have 2003 26M and I had mine in the salt chuck for a lot longer than 83 days in a season and I never ever got blisters. I used to think it was just a few paranoid owners that made a big deal about blisters until I started hearing actual cases of Macs. I always gave my hull a heavy waxing before season first splash then hauled every six weeks to clean and re-wax, after too many years I finally caved in and got the bottom paint, but because I read horror stories here I decided to apply the four heavy coats of epoxy barrier paint then the two coats of anti-fouling. Glad I did because here I am reading yet another case of gelcoat blisters - but I never ever got any in the five seasons I temporarily slipped and only used wax. Go figure!

Terry,
Can you give us the name and # of the paints you used since they seem to work well for you?
Thanks.

It seems like a few boats have gotten a rash that could be construed as blisters, but is really just limited to the gelcoat. These get a rough area of very small bumps on the surface which are easily sanded away. I've yet to hear of a Mac with a real osmotic blisters that penetrate all the way into the fiberglass and are usually coin sized or bigger. These are the real problem blisters that you have to drain, grind out then let dry completely before filling.

As with everything else in a Mac, I'm sure the factory uses the cheapest polyester gel coat on the market so you can't expect it to perform like the newer vinylester or epoxy based boats. That's why it is has always been recommended by reputable dealers that you apply an epoxy barrier coat and then bottom paint to any Mac that is going to live in a slip.

By the way, fresh water is know to be more of a problem for blisters than salt water.

Opie,
I can't figure out how to attach picture to this forum.
I live in upstate NY.
Boat has never been grounded.
I have pictures I sent MacGregor today and after looking at the problem some more it is like 60% blistered.
I checked about 20 other boats in the marina some in the water for 10 seasons or more and NO blisters.
I have waxed the bottom prior to putting it in the water.
This should not happen to a new boat.

Have you also contacted the dealer where you purchased your brand new Mac ? Is your new Mac a 2010 or 2009 model ? Please let us know what Macfactory has to say about your problem since you sent them photos of your boat. Best of luck to you in your quest for answers & solutions .

Frank L.

Pictures must be placed on a public server such as PhotoBucket. The instructions that follow are for photobucket, but other image hosting sites will be similar and this is not an endorsment of photobucket.

Go to your photobucket account.
Hover your mouse pointer over the picture that you want.
Several options will appear.
Go down to the IMG code and left click in the code box to the right.
Left click in the code box and select copy.

Now, while composing your post on this forum, right click at the place that you want the pic to appear and select paste. It will look like this:
Cool, huh?

It will appear on the forum like this:

Here is a picture that I took in the San Juan Islands:



Cool, huh?

The forum software will automatically re-size the pic for easy viewing and when a member left clicks on it, the original size will be viewable. The board does not actually download, or store the pic, it just uses the code to make your browser do the work. Repeat for up to three pics/post. It is best to use the "Preview" option, to make sure that everything is OK, before you submit the post. There is a three picture limit/post, to help protect those that still have slow internet (me when out & about).

Flickr is a little more difficult.

• Left click on the pic that you want to post.
  Above the pic, left click on "All Sizes".
  Left click on the size that you want to post. Large works best.
  Right click on the pic.
  Left click on "Properties". A window will open.
  Beside Address (URL), is the url that you will post. Copy all lines of it.
  I triple click on it and it highlights all of it.
  Copy and paste this between the [Img] tags in your post.

Enjoy,

~Rich

,,,and before you start losing sleep about all the blogs about 'acid' and collapse of the hull, remember that on the inside of the ballast tank there is no gelcoat, no epoxy, and the same water on the inside.

Great Steph....

Now I am going to have to cut my boat in half, paint the inside of the tank, and glue it back together again just so I can sleep soundly again....

There is a name for guys like U.... Sh*t Disturber.....

G

Need a Chain Saw

J

It's not a lemon it's a mac. I bought my X new in 99. Three months in fresh water and I had hundred of blisters. After much discussion with Mac they finally agreed to pay for it. Once the job was done ($3000.) Mac reniged and wouldn't pay. If not fixed blisters are very serious problem and can literally take the bottom of you boat out. Mine is now sealed with an epoxy barrier coat. Also a 12"x12" sheet of gelcoat in the centerboard trunk actually peeled right off during that 3 month period. The dealer fixed that. I love my X but Macgregor has been nothing but nasty.

Some forums (I think this is one of them) won't allow you to post a pic until you have made a number of text posts to make sure you are not a bot spamming with junk.

RE Blisters:

From what I've read, it seems they are more prevalent in fresh water than salt. I guess it's less dense and gets through the gelcoat easier. Also, from the numerous posts, the Mac seems to have a crappy hull gelcoat. After 1 season in fresh water, my '08 Mac had blisters. How serious a problem depends on how many and how deep they are. I let my Mac dry out over the winter and many of them subsided but there are still quite a few left. The next season I applied a coat of Aura bottom wax and no new blisters. In retrospect, I wish I had done this before any blisters, it might have given enough of a barrier to protect it.

I don't see any performance loss leaving the blisters, but I'm sure there is a minor loss similar to if I painted the bottom.

If the blisters are small, it's mostly a cosmetic issue. My old powerboat had zero blisters and I haven't seen other boats in my marina with blisters so I'm convinced it's a quality control issue that Mac will never admit to. Some say it could be a bad batch of gelcoat, who knows. It doesn't matter since the warranty excludes it.

The "fix" if you choose to is to sand them and "pop" the water out of them, dry it out and put an epoxy coat over it. I'm not sure how that would look essentially painting the bottom and possibly creating a rougher surface than the smooth gelcoat with some blisters.

Some people recommend an epoxy coat to protect the gelcoat, similar to the people who paved my driveway and then told me to seal coat it. I guess that's a good idea, but it seems like my gelcoat should hold up like other boats do.

Bottom line, don't loose sleep over it. It can be repaired if necessary or desired and probably just a cosmetic issue. You can use my philosophy, "I cant' see the blisters from my cockpit."

Let us know what your resolution is.

--Russ