Blister Repair

Engine Replacement

Gel Coat Job

Fortunately, Candide

has never had to

have any of these

Catastrophic Maintenance

Catastrophic.  The word conjures up all kinds of nasty images, doesn't it?  This section of the site describes those things that most people really, really don't want to do to their boats.  Bad things.  Expensive things!  These are the worst of the worst when it comes to boat maintenance!  

Blister Repair 

Many fiberglass boats suffer from "blisters."  These are pockets of water that seep between the layers of fiberglass and cause separation of these layers.  When the layers separate, they form bumps along the surface or "blisters," as they're called in boat yards.  

Not all blister repairs belong under the "Catastrophic Maintenance" heading.  Candide has a couple of blisters where the doghouse connects to the deck.  I've had an expert look at them, and his advice was to leave them alone, unless I felt that they were affecting the aesthetics of the boat.  He told me to keep an eye on them, and if they get much larger, to call him back.  If he were to fix them now, they'd cost about $400 - $500 each to repair.  Keep in mind, this price would be for a relatively small blister repair!

Let's talk about those blisters' big brothers.  The ones that are sometimes a foot long and can ruin fiberglass a half-inch or more below the surface.  These are the ones that you have to really be concerned about.  Generally, these large blisters will be found below the boat's waterline.  You'll notice them when the boat is hauled out for a bottom job.  

Also troublesome are hundreds of smaller blisters on the bottom of your vessel.  You might notice dozens of small raised bumps on the otherwise smooth bottom of you boat.  If they're particularly bad, the yard workers will respectively place their hats over their hearts as they inform you, "She has blisters..."  The workers may even tear up a bit.  Because if those blisters are particularly bad, it's going to cost you a LOT of money to have them repaired, should you elect to do so.  

If you only have a few major blisters, the repair job might not be too bad.  It's possible that the yard will be able to grind them out (literally use a grinding machine to remove the offending fiberglass), fill in the holes, and repaint the bottom.  Not a huge deal.

But if there are hundreds of them (and, yes, I've seen boats with literally hundreds of blisters), they may have to strip off all of the gelcoat below the waterline, remove the moisture that permeates the fiberglass (either by letting the boat dry out of the water for a month or two, or using special heat pads attached to vacuum equipment), sand the heck out of the bottom, and then re-apply the gelcoat along with water-proof epoxy.  It's not uncommon for these jobs to cost $15 - $20 thousand dollars!  Your boat could also be out of the water for months (literally months) while the work is being done...which will make living aboard difficult, to say the least.  Now, that's what I mean by "catastrophic!"

When Candide was hauled out for a bottom job in November 2002, a neighbor who happens to be a professional boat surveyor noticed blistering on the bottom.  "You might want to start thinking about having those repaired," he told me.  Well, I respect my friend but I'm not so sure if I'm going to start worrying about them yet.  Like many things about a boat, everybody has an opinion on what to do about blistering.  

One course of thought is to repair the blisters.  It's expensive, time-consuming, and expensive.  Did I mention expensive?  There's no guarantee that the blisters won't re-emerge in a short period of time after the repairs have been made.  Don't believe me?  Try to get a yardmaster to put in writing that once he strips off your gelcoat, sucks out the water, makes the repairs, and charges you tens of thousands of dollars, that the blisters will never re-appear.  Heck, see if he's willing to guarantee the job for five years.  One year, even!  If you can find such a yardmaster, drop me a note...I'll definitely post his contact information on this site!  Personally, I don't think you'll find such an offer.

Based on a relatively poor track record of folks who've had major blister repairs in the past, I've chosen to follow a second line of thought...to ignore them!  I can sense it right now.  Some readers are firing up MS Outlook so that they can send me an e-mail telling me what a fool I am.  That's OK...I welcome all messages concerning this site.  But this is a decision I've made.  The fiberglass towards the keel is nearly 2" thick aboard Candide.  I find it hard to believe that within my lifetime, the blister monster is going to find its way through this thick hull.  It is true that the blisters may effect the performance of the boat a little as she glides through the water.  Personally, I can live with that.  Besides, I've never heard of a boat sinking due to blisters below the waterline!  It just doesn't happen!

Basically, I've decided that the blisters are Candide's next owner's problem.  I'm sure that he or she will be able to negotiate down my asking price because some surveyor will proclaim, "She has blisters..."

Avoiding the Problem - Blister repair is a huge expense for any boat owner.  If you're of the opinion that blisters can lead to catastrophic maintenance, then my suggestion is to not buy a boat that has blisters.  When you have the vessel surveyed, your surveyor will let you know about blisters that he finds.  If he says there's a lot of them, and you're concerned about them, find another vessel.  Or at least negotiate $15,000 - $20,000 off the asking price of the boat.  If the owner's desperate, this tactic may work.  Most likely, he'll just laugh in your face!  If you're of the opinion that blisters aren't such a big deal, buy the boat.  Chances are, the blisters will never cause a serious problem for you.

Consequences of Laziness - As I mentioned earlier, I've never heard of a boat going to the bottom because of hull blistering under the waterline.  If you ignore blisters, they may worsen.  If you have them repaired, there's a good chance they'll re-appear.  I'm not convinced that there's a huge down-side to simply ignoring blisters on your boat.  I'm sure that some of my readers will disagree.  Others will agree completely.  Believe what you will about this topic!

Engine Replacement

The photographs below show two types of engines commonly found on sailboats.  The first is an "outboard" engine that my best friend Jonathan Duffett has aboard his boat, "Shadow."  As you can see from the picture, it's a fairly large piece of equipment, but replacing it would by no means constitute a "catastrophic" event in Jon's life.  Oh, sure, it might be expensive to buy a new engine...but it would be easy to do from a physical standpoint.  I mean, come on!  I've helped Jon completely remove his engine for repairs, loaded it into his car, and helped him put it back when it was returned!  

Now, contrast that with the other picture.  It shows the Yanmar 3QM 33-horse power engine embedded in Candide.  That sucker weighs some 900 pounds!  Personally, I think they installed the engine first and built the interior of the boat around her!  There is no way that two guys are going to spend 20 minutes together to get it removed and thrown into the back of a car.  To remove this engine would require a tremendous amount of effort and skill.  

Fortunately, my engine is running fine.  I attribute this to religious maintenance on my part.  That engine gets oiled, filtered, cleaned, and serviced several times a year!  I'm hoping that as long as I take good care of it, it will take good care of me.  I do this because I fear the day when it will have to be taken out and replaced!

I have known other people who had to replace engines on boats similar to Candide.  They all have their individual horrors to tell, but I've noticed a few things they seem to have in common, including:

Avoiding the Problem - Your surveyor should spend a LOT of time with the engine before you buy the boat.  He'll use all kinds of equipment to check RPM's, heat dissipation, electrical systems, etc.  Ask him if the engine is in good shape.  If it's not, well, be aware that you most likely face a HUGE bill to have it replaced or overhauled.  If you're emotionally attached to the boat, a bad engine can be leveraged at the bargaining table with the current owners.

Consequences of Laziness - If your engine is shot, your boat will be less maneuverable than she had been (especially if you live on a power boat).  

2005 Update!  I had to replace the engine in Candide!  You can read all about it by clicking here.

Gel Coat Job

The gel coat on a boat's hull is a fancy word for "paint."  Now, I know that it's not called "paint" in the marine industry...it's "special."  It costs a LOT more money that the pigmented coatings from your local Sherwin-Williams store.  I'm sure that it has a lot of fancy and expensive elements like gold, frankincense, and myrrh that are essential within the marine environment and justifies its high price.  Nonetheless, the stuff still comes in paint cans.  Very expensive cans of paint is what "gel coat" is.

Candide happens to have a dark green hull.  At least, it was originally dark green.  Now, it's more of a milky green at best.  Constant exposure to the sun's UV rays has, over the years, broken down the brilliant greenness that once was her hull's color.  Now, it's dull.  Faded.  Drab.  Lackluster, even.  It just doesn't look good!

Fortunately, I have a drinking buddy at the yard who paints hulls for a living.  I had him down one afternoon to look at Candide's hull in the daylight and give me an estimate for how much it would cost to bring back that beautiful green shine with a few coats of new gel coat.  He looked at it for about 30 seconds and announced, "For you, only $15,000."  And this guy is a personal friend!

Perhaps Bill Gates or a Carnegie are reading my Web site and they're thinking, "So what's wrong with that?  Seems like a good price!"  For me, though, that's a LOT of fucking money!  And it's strictly an aesthetic problem.  So the hull is a little dull?  I can live with that and pocket the $15,000 (which, according to my calculations, will allow me to cruise for about 14 months).  No WAY would I pay that much for an issue centered on vanity!

But that's just me.  My friend makes a good living by charging folks even more than $15,000 to paint the hulls of their boats.  I'm aware that the vast majority of this expense is spent on labor.  You see, Candide is designed to look like the hull is made from wood (she is, after all, a "traditional" boat).  In reality, her hull is fiberglass all the way.  The designers, though, inserted something called "lapstreaks" within the hull.  The official definition of the word is "made with boards whose edges lap one over another."  The builders wanted my boat to look like she was made from wood.  So, they formed the fiberglass on the hull to look like it was made by Vikings using primitive technology.  I can't count the number of folks who have asked me, "That's a wooden hull, right?"  Illusion achieved.  The problem is that there are grooves between each board whose "edges lap one over another."  These grooves have to be sanded to bare fiberglass by hand because it's simply not practical to use tools to dig out the old gel coat.  Hence, the exorbitant price.  

At least in this country!  I've done my homework, and found a very reputable marina in Mexico that can do the work for about $3,000.  Pay an American to sand out your grooves and spend a fortune.  Pay a Mexican to do the same job, and the price drops dramatically.  I figure that when I'm ready to sail into the sunset, I'll have about $5,000 ear-marked to re-paint my hull.  But the work will be done my Mexicans.  Hey!  I'm outsourcing...just like Ford, Nike, and Jordache!

Consequences of Laziness - If you let your gel coat go dull, you'll constantly be pestered by yard workers who make a living by painting boat hulls.  "Your boat would look brand-new if you'll let me paint it," they'll say.  That may be true, but having a dull hull doesn't affect anything except maybe the resell price of the vessel. 

Replacing Teak Decks

Teak decks are not only beautiful to look at, but they provide excellent traction for your feet when they're wet.  On Candide's deck, every place where a sailor's foot might go is covered with thick planks of teak.  Holding those planks in place are screws...thousands and thousands of screws.  Some of those screws have penetrated the fiberglass topside a bit too far and allowed water to leak into the cabin. 

Aboard Candide, leaks caused by the plank screws hasn't caused serious problems (well, there was that leak around the light fixture described in Painful Maintenance, but I don't consider this to be a serious problem).  Serious is when twenty or thirty screws all around the deck are allowing water to seep through the fiberglass.  Serious is when the boat owner has to use every available pot, pan, cup, and bowl to catch rainwater throughout the boat during downpours. 

A neighbor of mine had such a problem aboard his boat.  He could have paid about $20,000 or so to have the teak replaced, but he opted instead for a more cost-effective solution.  He simply ripped up the old teak planks, sucked out the moisture with special heat pads attached to powerful vacuum cleaners, filled in the space with fiberglass, and then applied gel coat mixed with sand (for added traction).  He did the labor himself, and the whole job only cost about $1,000.

In my years of living aboard, I've never known anyone to actually replace their teak decks.  Instead, most people tend to simply remove the teak altogether and replace it with fiberglass and gel coat.  This is certainly a cheaper option than buying a truckload of new teak, having it cut and fitted, and then attached to the deck with thousands and thousands of new screws (although there are alternatives to screws...like using epoxy to hold down the planks). 

Most people's attitude seems to be that teak decks are beautiful to look at, but they require a lot of maintenance.  This is true.  I'm always scrubbing the decks, replacing missing bungs, and repairing planks that are split or warped.  For all their trouble, the majority of owners will simply remove their teak decks and replace them with fiberglass and gel coat should the teak ever get to the point when it needs replacing. 

Should your teak decks happen to need replacing and you're in cruising around Thailand, you can have new teak installed for a song.  A friend of mine bought his boat in Thailand and knew that the teak decks would have to be replaced.  He was expecting it to cost an arm and a leg.  He was pleasantly surprised when the estimate came back at $750.  Being in a country where haggling is an art form, he was eventually able to talk them into doing the job for $650!  Here in the States, that kind of money might buy you a teak ship's wheel, but it ain't going to pay for new decking!

Consequences of Laziness - If your teak decks are allowing water to enter your cabin when it rains, your boat will start to rot.  This can cause very serious damage down below! 

Please drop me a line at: robert@sleepingwithoars.com

© 2007 by Robert Doty