A mistake no one should repeat.....

[Sumner]

When we bought the Endeavour we made one fatal mistake that no one should duplicate. The prior owner had a lot of paperwork for work done and a couple years prior to us buying the boat the bottom had blister repair and new paint. The invoice showed where barrier paint had been applied. The owner honestly didn't know for sure what had been done. When I saw the bill for over $3000 and that barrier paint had been applied I didn't feel it was necessary to haul the boat out and check the bottom. We should of done that even if it would of cost us.

The story is all too long to put here but I've posted it here along with lots of pictures....

Part 1:

Endeavour Outside Mods page 1 -- 1FATGMC

Part 2:

Endeavour Outside Mods page 2 -- 1FATGMC

Briefly if you don't want to go there it ended up that the boat had.....



...a lot of blisters. Shown above after drying 7 months and then repaired. Then a year later after more drying since we wheren't ready to put the boat back in the water anyway Ruth and I cleaned the bottom, gave it a light sanding so the barrier paint would stick and ....








then applied 3 coats of Sea Hawk's epoxy barrier paint (Tuff Stuff) that has builds of about twice the thickness of other barrier paints so fewer coats have to be applied.

After the barrier paint was on, 2 coats one day and another the next, we put on...







... 2 coats of bottom paint (also the second day). A coat of black and then blue so we could see when the blue was wearing through and a final 3 coat at the water line.




It came out looking good but it was a fair amount of work and that was with someone else sand blasting the old paint off and a crew at the yard doing the blister repair.

When we bought the boat we budgeted about $1200 for new bottom paint but with the need for the blister repair the complete job and materials ended up about $5000. So the moral of the story is pull any boat that you are considering buying out and check the bottom regardless of past repair bills.

Again a lot better description of the work done and more pictures here...

Endeavour 37 Outside Mods Index

Sumner

[neilpride]

I dont want to be negative but this boat is the right candidate for a gelcoat peeling job and a full barrier coat Project, and im sorry for the experience, i know how you feel because i do the same mistake in the past..

[Sumner]

Originally Posted by neilpride

I dont want to be negative but this boat is the right candidate for a gelcoat peeling job and a full barrier coat Project, and im sorry for the experience, i know how you feel because i do the same mistake in the past..

Appreciate the comments but for a boat in this price range I just don't think that would be very cost effective and it was never suggested by the crew that did the blister repair and they have done hundreds of boat.

There were some large blisters but most were very small just lots of them. They were repaired correctly. It also now does have 3 full coats of Sea Hawk's epoxy barrier paint (equivalent to 6 coats of Interlux in build thickness) so does have a full barrier coat,

Sumner

[a64pilot]

Since you were out of the water for so long, I think you have a much better chance of the repair taking.
I am no expert at all, but it seems most problems from blister repair that re-appear, it seems the common thread is the boat wasn't out of the water for very long

[Sumner]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Since you were out of the water for so long, I think you have a much better chance of the repair taking.
I am no expert at all, but it seems most problems from blister repair that re-appear, it seems the common thread is the boat wasn't out of the water for very long

Yes we wanted to be careful about that. The larger ones were opened right when the boat came out and they didn't repair anything until there was no sign of drainage 7-8 months later. Then the boat sat another 14 months before the barrier paint and bottom paint went on and there was no further sign of any drainage.

Not saying nothing will ever happen again but it would probably be much more isolated. We put ablative paint on over the barrier paint that can go in and out of the water as our plan was to put her in the water 4-6 months out of the year and then on stands in the yard. Now with Ruth's passing and me having to sell the boat not sure what the new owners will end up doing but she is in a lot better condition now than before when she didn't have a proper whole hull barrier paint job,

Sumner

[a64pilot]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss.
I don't what to say,

[carambo46]

sorry for your loss

[SV THIRD DAY]

If the blisters were not structural you slap bottom paint over them and go cruising.
I've seen people waste thousands on small blisters that wouldn't have affected the structural integrity of the boat. The boat yards love to promote "Blisterphobia" and it makes them thousands in extra charges.

[onestepcsy37]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

If the blisters were not structural you slap bottom paint over them and go cruising.
I've seen people waste thousands on small blisters that wouldn't have affected the structural integrity of the boat. The boat yards love to promote "Blisterphobia" and it makes them thousands in extra charges.

Upon being hauled out and scraping the bottom I was told by one of the local "entrepeneurs" that I had blisters and needed the bottom peeled and barrier coated. After giving him a serious sneer I condescendingly informed him that what he was looking at were the remains of the barnacles I had scraped off around the waterline, then questioned if he knew the difference between barnacles and blisters. He just turned and walked away.

[MYTraveler]

Even the worst uniflites were only cosmetically impaired by blisters. Kind of like acne in a teenager. Like beauty, its only skin deep.

[zeehag]

sum i am sad to hear of ruth's passing.
i hope all goes better for you as you recover from that hard loss.
unless the blisters are structural or wet, you shouldnt have to worry about them once a barrier coat is applied and bottom paint added.

[Sumner]

Thanks guys/gals for the condolences. Those of you who might of read our trip reports know how close Ruth and I were. We found each other late in life but the 6 years we had together were by far the best six years of my life. She was a special person that touched all those who she came into contact with. I'm hanging in there but only by keeping really busy. I'm making some major changes to the Macgregor anticipating some longer trips that she and I had planned. I'm taking the Mac down to the boat yard in Florida where the Endeavour is and will spend a month or so finishing the jobs we had not quite finished on her and then put her up for sale and take the Mac out staying on the West coast for a while and then down to the Keys and maybe over to the Bahamas.

About the blisters I agree that we could of done nothing. The boat had been in the water all her life and sure wasn't sinking when we bought her. I didn't do a good job of wording things evidently.

The point I was really trying to make was if you buy a boat at least pull her out and inspect the bottom. Then you can decide from there if she needs attention either structurally or cosmetically depending on your feelings about the latter.

In our case the boat was going to be up on stands in the yard for over half the year each year and we wanted her to look nice and could afford to work on the bottom and so that is what we did and were happy about it. We could of put on new bottom paint and left her alone and I'm sure she would of still been fine. We still should of pulled her out so we would of know then what was ahead of us one way or the other based on the boat's condition and our goals.

There is no 'yard crew' at Charlotte Harbor Boat Storage so no one was pressuring us to do this. There are crews and individuals that are insured that work in the yard along with working in other yards. You can do any work you want there or hire anyone as long as they are insured. We love the yard as you can live on the boat while working on her, they have about the lowest rates of any yard we found in Florida and fairly good hurricane protection being inland a ways on a fresh water canal system. If you need to stop cruising for a while to work on your boat it is a good option,

Sumner

P.S. In memory of Ruth:

http://www.sjrnews.com/view/full_sto...%A8?instance=1

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Sumner

<snip>
The point I was really trying to make was if you buy a boat at least pull her out and inspect the bottom. Then you can decide from there if she needs attention either structurally or cosmetically depending on your feelings about the latter.

<snip>

P.S. In memory of Ruth:

San Juan Record - Classifieds, Events, Businesses in Monticello, San Juan County, Utah - Ruth A Dawson Patterson


Tough lesson - Always, always, always get a haulout...

Thanks for sharing

Sorry for your loss - time is so precious...

[Cheechako]

I've spent a lot of sleepless nights about blisters... at least yours don't look as bad as two of my boats.
One boat I had was so saturated it had blisters inside the bilge also! The other had major blisters, some areas 2" x 6" and 3/16" deep. That boat got a quick "dig out, dry for a week and fill" job and then two years later a major bottom job.
It's depressing when "your baby" is sick....

[rognvald]

Sumner,
Excellent job on detailing your considerable work. However, your choice of black bottom paint is THE WORST you can choose for storing/hauling a boat long term in South Florida. I tell you this from experience since after changing the color of my bottom paint to black Petit ablative, I suffered major rudder delamination over the Summer, in a yard on Tampa Bay, from the tremendous heat generated by the South Florida sun. I was fortunate that I did not have any delamination on my cored hull, but the rudder was a disaster. I finally repaired it over last Winter(in Illinois) and it is ,now, better than new. Once, opened for inspection, the rudder delaminated from both the skin and internally in the cored material from the unstoppable heat generated. At least, paint your rudder white if not the whole boat. Unless you live in the high latitudes, black bottom paint is the worst color for the tropics for boats that are hauled for long periods of time. Good luck, good sailing and condolences to you for your recent loss.