bumps/blisters in gelcoat

mbalogh

Cadet
Joined
Jun 26, 2013
Messages
10
Hey everyone -

I recently went to look at a 2001 220 LX that I've been considering purchasing. In general, the boat looked like it was in good shape and I may be interested in purchasing it sans one potential deal breaker. As I was inspecting it I noticed small bumps or "blisters" in the gelcoat on the bottom of the boat. Blisters is in quotes because they didn't seem to be filled with fluid. They were relatively flat so that you were just barely able to see the raised edges and each about 1/8"-1/4" across. There were what seems like hundreds in small areas about 1-2 feet around. If you divide the bottom up in sections separated by the chines that run front to back in the hull, they were only in one section and were spread out in 3 or 4 patches over most of the length of the boat. All areas where they appeared were below the water line. The rest of the bottom sections and sides of the hull looked perfect.

The boat has been out of the water for the entire winter, so I don't think they were caused by water intrusion from the outside because they would have dried and shrunken by now. I also didn't see any evidence of water sitting inside the boat, but of course there are compartments under the floor that can't be viewed. They didn't seem soft at all when I pressed on them with my fingernail. The current owner mentioned that he cleaned the bottom with some sort of acid product that is made to clean boat hulls before he winterized it in the fall and he thought maybe it could have caused this.

So my question is this... are there any well known issues with the gelcoat delaminating on these boats? Could the issue just be that the gelcoat wasn't sprayed on evenly or spattered somehow in these areas? Like I said, most of the bottom was perfect except for 3 or 4 patches of these bumps.

I don't want to purchase a major future project, especially without some sort of significant discount, so my inclination is to stay away unless I get some pretty concrete feedback that this is not a major issue. Thanks in advance for any info any of you can give!

Mike
 

VT550

Recruit
Joined
Jul 21, 2015
Messages
2
I have a 2001 190LX and it has these bumps as well. I don't have a professional answer, just my opinion. I think it's a topical sealant issue but doesn't cause any performance or reliability issues. I feel it's just visual and nothing major to be concerned about. Good luck!
 
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