fiberglass fish scales

[larivee16]

Hi new to the forum, I have a problem with a 16 ft larivee center console hull and hope someone has a answer, I purchased the boat in south florida where it had a new deck and interior looking good, put it in the water and all the fiberglass on the deck and inside hulls started to fall off. Got home and found pressure treated wood was used and the fiberglass didant stick, problem 1 stripped boat to hull for a proper rebuild and found fish scale looking marks in the gelcoat on the bottom of hull that were not there before water test. So I ground the gelcoat off and found the fiberglass underneath had the same fish scale in the resin and mat it is air or voids in resin, im not sure it is only in random places on the hull no area is larger than 8 inch area .
My question has anyone ever seen this before, what is it, is it worth the repair.
Thanks for any info.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: fiberglass fish scales

The fiberglass didn't stick to the pressure treated wood because of the moisture content of the PT wood, and if you try to put more glass on it before it dries out... that stuff won't stick either. It will take quite a while (months) for the treating solution to dry out of the wood, if you're in a hurry you may want to tear out the PT and replace it with kiln dried wood.

I have no idea about your fish scale problem, but it doesn't sound good.

Sorry to hear about your problems, it sounds like you were taken by a "quick fixer" that didn't know what the heck he was doing. Maybe you can get your money back?

 

[BWT]

Re: fiberglass fish scales

need some pics to get a better idea of what you're dealing with..

 

[oops!]

Re: fiberglass fish scales

yeah....we need pics ....especially of the fish scale you are talking about....it think its just crazing....but we need to see

 

[Mark42]

Re: fiberglass fish scales

It sounds to me like the "fish scale" may actually be resin that was hardening when it was applied and therefore was kind of jelly like, and would not adhere to the ply well. Even pressure treated ply with high water content will hold polyester resin nearly as well as dry ply (as reported by the APA -Engineered Wood Association in their tests with PT ply).

But that is just my guess. Am interested in seeing the pics too.

 

[larivee16]

Re: fiberglass fish scales

I will get some pics up soon, I had plans to do a whole rebuild with new wood but the scales in the hull have put things on hold, there are 15-20 boat builders within a few miles of home and no one has ever heard of larivee or seen this problem before, they all say the same thing the canadians used cheep resin in theses boats, but I wanted a broader view, and surely someone has owned or done work on one of them. Thanks for the info I will get some pics up soon.