Mahe 36: Osmosis fix by Fountaine Pajot method of repair

[hooray]

I would like to know if anyone owns FP cats have hull osmosis? Also I would like to know how effective is FP 's recommended process of repair. ie stripping of gel coat , fibre glass and mat layers; 2 months of hull drying and then putting back the mat, fibre glass, gelcoat layers.

Please let me know how effective is this repair process. Does osmosis still occur after it is repaired in this manner?

[RKsailsolo]

I think that's the standard accepted method to do a repair of that type. The hull takes a long time to dry once exposed to the atmosphere. The Gelcoat plus a layer of glass is mechanically shaved off with a tool that looks like a belt sander but has a rotary cylinder with hardened tips to plane the surface down, exposing the underlying laminate beyond the osmosis damage itself.

A CF poster, Minaret, appears to be a pro in this field. Check out his postings.

[Dulcesuenos]

Didnt know the Mahes had this issue?

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Seastream]

A number of hulls within a certain timeframe seem to have the problem. We have 2008 hull #91 which we bought in Tortola back in 2012. FP covered the hull 'peel' which was done by Nanny Cay marina in Roadtown, Tortola. They charged FP $15K. We are on the hard in FL now having some above waterline blistering repaired and discovered some of the previous below waterline hull blistering had reappeared. Apparently Nanny Cay marina didn't apply a 'barrier' coat after the peel but just faired the hull with compound and applied an ablative bottom coat. We're doing that now, using Interlux Interprotect 2000 epoxy paint, following with ablative bottom paint.

Bob

[Seastream]

In fairness to Nanny Cay marina, I don't know whether this epoxy barrier coat is mandatory. It may be an optional insurance coat that can be applied during such a repair. It may not be found on new boats where the hull has bonded properly during layup.

[contrail]

To be fair, Nanny Cay does NOT do osmosis repairs, or much of anything else other than bottom painting. They own the boatyard, and almost all the work is done by the small businesses that are based there, and elsewhere. Some are great, some not so much. So, it would be accurate to say that the work was done AT Nanny Cay, but not BY Nanny Cay. That said, it would be interesting to know which of the contractors did the work, and how they explained what they did. Epoxy is the material that "barrier coats" the laminate, and it can be done in various different ways, as I am sure you will find as this thread lengthens!

FP boats from all eras have blistered. I have known those that blistered after the repair you describe. And, blisters above the waterline, which I have also seen before, aren't necessarily osmosis that can be prevented by barrier coating. Best of luck.

[MarkSF]

Here is my understanding of the theory behind this :

Blisters are caused by two things : a poor quality fibreglass layup, with voids in the glass, sometimes combined with unevenly mixed resin, followed by penetration of moisture, either from above (the bilge), or from the outside (seawater). Osmosis needs at least 2 things to cause blisters : voids, and moisture.

We already know that FP weren't very good at laying up fibreglass. So when they do the strip, do they take enough off such that the deeper layers cannot cause blisters later on in the boat's life? I don't know, but it sounds like they don't. Maybe you can't.

So the next line of defence is to keep out the water. Which means barrier coat. Several layers.

[contrail]

To be fair, Nanny Cay does NOT do osmosis repairs, or much of anything else other than bottom painting. They own the boatyard, and almost all the work is done by the small businesses that are based there, and elsewhere. Some are great, some not so much. So, it would be accurate to say that the work was done AT Nanny Cay, but not BY Nanny Cay. That said, it would be interesting to know which of the contractors did the work, and how they explained what they did. Epoxy is the material that "barrier coats" the laminate, and it can be done in various different ways, as I am sure you will find as this thread lengthens!

FP boats from all eras have blistered. I have known those that blistered after the repair you describe. And, blisters above the waterline, which I have also seen before, aren't necessarily osmosis that can be prevented by barrier coating. Best of luck.

[geoleo]

Boater got ripped at Nanny Cay---nothing unusual here.Never heard of gelcoat being peeled and no epoxy applied anywhere! Did FP manage this repair????

[contrail]

Originally Posted by georgetheleo

Boater got ripped at Nanny Cay---nothing unusual here.Never heard of gelcoat being peeled and no epoxy applied anywhere! Did FP manage this repair????

Actually, we don't know that. IF the repair itself - whatever glass was replaced and/or the fairing material, was done with epoxy, that actually can be the barrier coat. OR the barrier coat can be layers of epoxy on top of whatever else is underneath, usually polyester. But, if enough epoxy was used in the rebuilding and refairing process, that might not have been deemed necessary. Do we know what materials were used throughout the process? The OP hasn't said. The fact that there are now blisters above the waterline, in an area that one wouldn't need to barrier coat, points, I would think, to the original FP layup. But that's a guess. We don't know enough. One reason I was curious as to who actually contracted to do the work. And who managed it! Easy to just speculate.

[Helia 44]

To set the record straight, there are a lot of rumour mongers out there that knock things they know little about.

It was a few years of FP and they had a resin/in the gelcoat problem. They do a beautiful job of it, but defective resin was their undoing..

To be fair, and a credit to F.P. they rectified the boats involved with a complete peel job, dry time, and recoat. One boat yard here in Australia reported having done about 40 of them.

Anyone that really knows anything about F.P. will already knows about this. Do your homework....

Helia 44

[DtM]

That boatyard can only be the one that Multihull Solutions uses so that is hardly surprising.


FP have very specific requirements for the repair. You need to take care that enough material is specified to return the hull to full thickness.

[Seastream]

An outfit called BVI Painters (contact named Eldred - website at BVI Painters holding page) did the work at Nanny Cay. Don't know how many others with him or who supervised it. I couldn't as I was in NH at the time. I do know that the hull was allowed to dry for about three months (give or take some wx days) before proceeding. I've no issues with FP (though they do take some time to respond) particularly since they covered the above waterline blisters which were discovered well after the boat was out of warranty.