Solutions for Gel-coat bubbling???

[tdaines@hotmail.com]

Hi everyone,

I have an 83 SNS which was stored on the water for the first three years of its life. This caused the gelcoat on the bottom and up the sides to bubble.

Mastercraft sent a letter to all owners of these boats in 1984 stating, "while we strive to use the highest possible quality of materials in our boats, they are NOT intented to be stored on the water, and therefore, this type of hull damage will NOT be covered by the new boat warranty."

I'm guessing this was a common issue - does anyone out there know how to fix it? Any experience anyone may have would prove helpful.

Are there shops out there that know how to re-do the entire gelcoat? Costs???

Thanks in advance for any help!

TIM

[André]

Lots of discussions here.
Just do a search for blisters.
Good luck!
Very expensive to re-gel the entire hull...
My bottom hull was repaint under the waterline with DuPont Imron paint 5 years ago.
Still perfect but i keep my boat on a lift...

[bigmac]

I know that MasterCraft has stepped up to the plate on several occasions of blistering, depsite its warranty warning about on-water storage, so I'd check with a MasterCraft dealer. However, I'd be pretty pessimistic about them standing behind the gel coat on a 23 year old boat.

Check with any upscale boat dealer and find out who they recommend for gel coat work. I don't know what it costs, but I'll bet it's breathtakingly expensive.

As Andre mentioned, search Teamtalk for hull blisters

http://www.tmcowners.com/teamtalk/search.php?searchid=523072

[tdaines@hotmail.com]

Thanks to both of you for the suggestions - I found a bunch of information on other forums about this.

I also doubt MC would do anything on a boat this old - I won't even ask for that. The old SNS is a boat close to my heart, so I may still consider repair, I found a few sites that suggest it would run into the thousands very quickly...

Anyway, thanks again - I appreciate the help.

I do LOVE the Mastercraft family!

TIM