Minor Blister Repair and bottom paint?

[WSMFP]

I've hauled our 31ft sailboat for the first time in about 4 years for maintaince. Overall the bottom looks better than I would have expected and the ablative bottom paint did it's job. However, I've found an estimated 30 small dime/nickle sized blisters that I would like to repair before they get worse.

I've researched the repair of the actual blisters and I can easily accomplish that. I wasn't planning on taking the bottom down to gelcoat and would like to sand and apply another coat of ablative. Then put her back in the water. To repair these small blisters do I need to take the bottom down to gel coat or can I grind, let them dry and epoxy repair?

[AndyEss]

You don’t have a lot of blisters and they are quite small. Grind them down, make sure you dry them out, and epoxy fill, paint.

[timeout2]

Use orbital sander at low speed, 100 grit. Sand gently until you have eliminated blister. It might be paint related or you might be through the gel coat.You may go all the way through gel coat and into the mat. Depending upon how deep you go, you may need to fair spots with west system. Use a waterproof filler.