I had to fix blisters on a 1980 compac that had been in fresh water without any bottom paint or barrier coat. From what I read fresh water is more prone to osmosis than salt water. I did grind them to open them up, filled them with two part epoxy and micro balloons and faired, then put on an epoxy barrier coat (think it was bottompoxy or hull poxy) meant to seal the hull. Then threw on some anti fouling. It a lot of work but I did not see an alternative. Also from what I was reading on blisters on the web they said that the blisters were supposed to be cured in the new methods that builders are using to lay up hulls. The methods for repair are supposed to fix what were voids or delaminations in the hull. Robbin ----- Original Message ----- From: "Irv Kooris" <ikooris@comcast.net> To: "Montgomery_Boats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 4:43 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Gelcoat/fiberglass Agreed -----Original Message----- From: "Tom Smith" <tsmith@nextit.com> Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 13:36:33 To:"For and about Montgomery Sailboats"<montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: RE: M_Boats: Gelcoat/fiberglass The article I send David the link to states blistering can show up in 5 years. He's not too far off that, and I doubt it's a hard and fast rule. However, I would go further and say one shouldn't expect to see blistering at all in a hull that's laid up properly. Perhaps we can get comments on this subject from the boat builders amongst us... t Tom Smith Next IT 509-242-0767 -----Original Message----- From: montgomery_boats-bounces+tsmith=nextit.com@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:montgomery_boats-bounces+tsmith=nextit.com@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Irv Kooris Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 12:26 PM To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats Subject: Re: M_Boats: Gelcoat/fiberglass My only comment is that his Montgomery is basically new. One doesn't expect to see blistering in a new boat. Irv ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Smith" <tsmith@nextit.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 2:13 PM Subject: RE: M_Boats: Gelcoat/fiberglass Blistering is caused by water being absorbed by the gelcoat and between the layers of glass when the boat's left in the water. You can live with them (as long as they don't get a lot worse), or you can eliminate them. Eliminating them entails grinding them off and filling the voids. I can't imagine it's too much fun. There's a simple explaination here: http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/1220983tip.htm /)) Tom Smith & Jane VanWinkle M15/345--Chukar M17/496--Unnamed _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats