How can I fix Grey stains/areas on white gelcoat on foredeck and hull of Princess V55

Thanks for input RogerRat and Firefly.

I asked the broker again "How difficult is it to fix the grey stains on foredeck and parts of the hull?" His answer "Total price for sanding and repainting 1500€".

I'm then thinking that this is a nobrainer 1500€, that is nothing, I'll fix it right after buying the boat, and there are other fixes that needs to be done like teak on platform, teak on passarelle, new upholstery on sun cushions, new upholstery on sofa in saloon, and a couple of other smaller fixes as well, however these other fixes don't have a risk element attached to them. These fixes is not a problem to me as I think the price on the boat is good. And my overall feeling is that it is a happy ship that is well taken care. No smells, no traces of moist etc. Of course verifying that the engines are in good shape is the most important check.

The broker is American Marine, distributor of Princess in Greece and I get the feeling that they/Nick the broker is a trustworthy professional man that knows what he is talking about. If he says it is 1500€ to fix it maybe I should just trust him, and let him fix it after I bought the boat? Or maybe trust him that it will be an excellent repair of the grey stains, but place a bid on the boat subject to having survey, sea trial, engine check and also stains fixed professionally. I put in downpayment, that I can get back, I pay the surveyor, MAN distributor doing the engine checks, etc.

If after that everything is OK, except that the stains where not fixed a 100% then I walk away or negotiate price further as Alf suggested. Given that this is no bull**** broker this could be a fair risk to take? Or what other alternatives do I have?

Rgds / Krippe
 
yossy said:
Thanks for input RogerRat and Firefly.

I asked the broker again "How difficult is it to fix the grey stains on foredeck and parts of the hull?" His answer "Total price for sanding and repainting 1500€".

I'm then thinking that this is a nobrainer 1500€, that is nothing, I'll fix it right after buying the boat, and there are other fixes that needs to be done like teak on platform, teak on passarelle, new upholstery on sun cushions, new upholstery on sofa in saloon, and a couple of other smaller fixes as well, however these other fixes don't have a risk element attached to them. These fixes is not a problem to me as I think the price on the boat is good. And my overall feeling is that it is a happy ship that is well taken care. No smells, no traces of moist etc. Of course verifying that the engines are in good shape is the most important check.

The broker is American Marine, distributor of Princess in Greece and I get the feeling that they/Nick the broker is a trustworthy professional man that knows what he is talking about. If he says it is 1500€ to fix it maybe I should just trust him, and let him fix it after I bought the boat? Or maybe trust him that it will be an excellent repair of the grey stains, but place a bid on the boat subject to having survey, sea trial, engine check and also stains fixed professionally. I put in downpayment, that I can get back, I pay the surveyor, MAN distributor doing the engine checks, etc.

If after that everything is OK, except that the stains where not fixed a 100% then I walk away or negotiate price further as Alf suggested. Given that this is no bull**** broker this could be a fair risk to take? Or what other alternatives do I have?

Rgds / Krippe
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something wrong here...be careful, very very careful ...I cant believe (as said earlier)..that 1500 clears all

if that was reality I think the "fix" would have been done ...something wrong here
 
billskip said:
something wrong here...be careful, very very careful ...I cant believe (as said earlier)..that 1500 clears all

if that was reality I think the "fix" would have been done ...something wrong here
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. Some people lose interest in their boats, and want them sold and can't be bothered organising remedial works so they just accept a lower price to avoid the hassle. If a reputable yard has quoted to repair the problem, and the engine and hull survey show the boat to be otherwise in good shape, then it's worth pursuing. I think the forum is sometimes a bit quick to issue "walk away" advice.

Yossy, I like the idea of buying subject to satisfactory repair, provided that you are happy your deposit is in safe hands in the meantime.
 
Bill and Nick appreciate your comments. My thinking would be similar to Nicks. But what is a reputable yard and is this one? In Sweden a Princess distributor is definitely reputable and can be trusted for doing a good job. Greece is far from Sweden but American Marine is princess distributor and Nick the broker at American Marine is giving a very good impression.

Nick_H said:
Not necessarily. Some people lose interest in their boats, and want them sold and can't be bothered organising remedial works so they just accept a lower price to avoid the hassle. If a reputable yard has quoted to repair the problem, and the engine and hull survey show the boat to be otherwise in good shape, then it's worth pursuing. I think the forum is sometimes a bit quick to issue "walk away" advice.

Yossy, I like the idea of buying subject to satisfactory repair, provided that you are happy your deposit is in safe hands in the meantime.
Click to expand...
 
Definitely try oxalic acid as advised already. Google wet sanding too! Some impressive results in articles online on wet sanding.
 
Nick_H said:
Not necessarily. Some people lose interest in their boats, and want them sold and can't be bothered organising remedial works so they just accept a lower price to avoid the hassle. If a reputable yard has quoted to repair the problem, and the engine and hull survey show the boat to be otherwise in good shape, then it's worth pursuing. I think the forum is sometimes a bit quick to issue "walk away" advice.

Yossy, I like the idea of buying subject to satisfactory repair, provided that you are happy your deposit is in safe hands in the meantime.
Click to expand...

Agreed in theory ..have you ever bought a boat in Greece?..I have..

I am not suggesting "walk away" but it seems to me to be such a small cost to repair,and
surely the broker is on a mark up, the cost price of repair would be even less..however...

Yossy, I hope you can buy for a very good price that will reflect any future sale at minimum loss

Good luck and the very best wishes.
 
Sorry to chip in a little late...

It's not that easy to tell from the video, but I would guess they are defects in the gel coat rather than stains that can be simply removed or bleached. A macro photo would help.

My first thoughts were, perhaps the gel coat catalyst was not correctly mixed?
This doesn't become noticeable unless you are looking under strong inspection lights or until the gel coat has severely oxidised and a difference in the weathering can be seen.

As JFM suggests, you need to determine the depth of the defects, though I suspect it will be the entire gel coat depth.

Polished gel coat and oxidised gel coat have different colours due to how light reflects on a smooth or a rough surface. It may well be all that is needed is correction techniques - wet sanding, followed with multiple polishing stages.
I am not saying that the defects are due to oxidation, or that correction techniques would be a cure to the defects, it won't, merely stating that if the gel coat was highly polished the gel coat defects will be far less noticeable.

There is another possible cause that looks similar to these defects, a coating of some sort in its history to attempt to fix the oxidation with an application of goop rather than correction.
Polytrol for example (he shudders) soon dries up, but leaves patches where the application was thicker, or where the gel was more accepting.

My money would be on incorrect mixing of the gel coat out of those two.

On a test patch of say a sq ft, rub with some water and 1500 grit wet & dry. You will have to go at it some as the high level of oxidation means you will be sanding peaks until you reach the actual gel coat defect level and below.
If you are not able to establish whether you are removing a micron or a mm then don't attempt this stage yourself as you may go through the gel.
During this you will be able to determine the probable depth of defect, if the colour uniforms out at all and if it was an application of the past as the sanding will be removing it.

You can roller on or shoot on new colour matched gel coat if it comes to it.

A specialist inspection of the gel coat would be money well spent, the real value would be in what it saves.

Paint? No
 
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Many Fairline and Princess over here from the nineties have the same problem. In the shiny surfaces it is easy to get rid of this, sanding (400/600 and grade going to 800/1000) and compounding, and polishing does the trick.
But on non slip areas the to resolve this is not easy, because if u sand u remove the non slip bits.

So yes I agree with the broker that repainting does the trick.

If you are so keen about this I would
1) get a quote how much its costs to do it and reduce this from the price or
2) make the owner fix it under the contract.
I prefare 1 here, cause with this you have more free hand on when and how to do this. If you go be sure the quote comes from an experienced fiberglass / gelcoat repair guy and not coming from the broker alone.
 
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