Blistering...on a racing dinghy?

[Greenheart]

Okay, the Osprey is forty years old, and she will have spent plenty of that time outdoors, and possibly in the weeds, latterly...

...but how often do dinghies, largely dry-sailed, get blisters on their undersides?

View attachment 30718

They're about 20mm across.

They need the same treatment as I'm giving my blistered rudder, I suppose...get rid of the blister, fill the cavity with gelcoat, sand off the excess?

 

[Kukri]

Okay, the Osprey is forty years old, and she will have spent plenty of that time outdoors, and possibly in the weeds, latterly...

...but how often do dinghies, largely dry-sailed, get blisters on their undersides?

View attachment 30718

They're about 20mm across.

They need the same treatment as I'm giving my blistered rudder, I suppose...get rid of the blister, fill the cavity with gelcoat, sand off the excess?

I can cap that - I have a glued clinker ply tender, built by me, that developed similar blisters after a winter afloat - she had been epoxy coated from new. Stripped back, dried out, re-coated and 20 years later there has been no recurrence.

In the case of the Osprey has she by any chance spent time lying on grass?

 

[Iain C]

...or on the trolley?

Just ignore it, very likely to disappear in time. I had a Fireball deck blister badly under a course card..moved it and they disappeared after a few weeks.

 

[Tranona]

Many dinghy hulls are like that. Combination of poor building process (temperature and humidity control) and often spending some time on carpeted supports while laminate is not fully cured. Something to keep you busy when you are bored next winter. Get it under cover, dig the blisters out, wash all the nasty fluids out and fill with epoxy and gelcoat. Stacks of info on the web on how to do it.

 

[Lakesailor]

Ignore it. Go sailing.

 

[Greenheart]

Understood, thank you.