Poxy Drascombe

snowleopard

snowleopard

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The charity I help with has a Drascombe which is kept on the local reservoir and has been afloat all season for the last 10 summers. They now want to sell it so I started to clean it up this morning. When I got through the crud on the bottom I found a rash of blisters below the waterline.

Firstly, does anyone have experience of osmosis in Drascombes? I appreciate that mooring in fresh water is the worst thing for that condition but as it was built in the 21st century I would expect it to be a lot more resistant.

Secondly, this reduces our chances of getting a decent price for it so any suggestions what we should do about it. I think the charity would be reluctant to stump up for a professional peel so is it best to do a DIY patch-up job or try to sell as-is?
 
snowleopard said:
The charity I help with has a Drascombe which is kept on the local reservoir and has been afloat all season for the last 10 summers. They now want to sell it so I started to clean it up this morning. When I got through the crud on the bottom I found a rash of blisters below the waterline.

Firstly, does anyone have experience of osmosis in Drascombes? I appreciate that mooring in fresh water is the worst thing for that condition but as it was built in the 21st century I would expect it to be a lot more resistant.

Secondly, this reduces our chances of getting a decent price for it so any suggestions what we should do about it. I think the charity would be reluctant to stump up for a professional peel so is it best to do a DIY patch-up job or try to sell as-is?
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Which drascombe is it?
 
You and the other volunteers could strip the gelcoat off the bottom, leave the boat under a tent to dry out - it's the right time of year if you're quick - then apply Gelshield.

BUT that's tons of work, the worst kind above head height and you'd all need to be careful re eye, face and arm protection - and by the sound of it you may be on your own !

It's well known nowadays osmosis never sank a boat yet, just auction off for whatever they can get.
 
Seajet said:
You and the other volunteers could strip the gelcoat off the bottom, leave the boat under a tent to dry out - it's the right time of year if you're quick - then apply Gelshield.

BUT that's tons of work, the worst kind above head height and you'd all need to be careful re eye, face and arm protection - and by the sound of it you may be on your own !

It's well known nowadays osmosis never sank a boat yet, just auction off for whatever they can get.
Click to expand...

How "above head height"?
Drascombes can be turned over to get at their bottom, they are only dinghies.
 
I follow 'Free Range Sailing' on YouTube they had a few blisters popped them and let them dry then epoxied them in. Not a difficult job. Have a search for them and see what you think.
 
snowleopard said:
The Longboat - 22ft, open cockpit version.
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Is it a Drascombe (Churchouse Boats) or a Devon (Honnor Marine)? I'd start by contacting whichever maker it is and asking their advice. However, Honnor Marine have recently changed hands - I'm not even sure if they are building new boats at the moment - so if it's one of theirs they may not be able to help much.

A ten year old Longboat is probably only worth £3 - £5k depending on use and whether it has a trailer, so almost certainly not worth professional rectification. I'd pop, grind, fill, fair and paint.

(10 year old Honnor Marine Devon Longboat, no blisters yet!)
 
snowleopard said:
Yes, bought new from Churchouse 2008

New price seems to be £19,995 + VAT today! I wonder why anyone buys new with that degree of depreciation.
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Surprises me too, but them's the breaks. I suspect it's because there are so many second hand Drascombes around, often lightly used, that once the new boat smell has worn off they are in a large pool of possibles.

Although mine is a Honnor Marine one I have found Sharon Geary-Howard at Churchouse to be unfailingly helpful and friendly, so I'd definitely recommedn asking her advice.
 
We had a boat once that I had grit blasted to remove years of anti fouling. When it had been surveyed a couple of years previously, the hull was declared sound with VC Tar Epoxy protecting it and no signs of any blistering. The grit blasting revealed hundreds of 3-5 mm shallow craters where the gel coat had formed bubbles under the epoxy at some time.

I allowed it to dry for a short time and filled them all with epoxy filler and then faired the hull with a random orbital sander. Primed with antifouling primer and anitfouled the whole thing. When we sold it a year or two later the survey didn't reveal anything untoward at all.

The whole process didn't take me more than a few hours.

(Our current boat was peeled and dried and vacuum/heat dried and then layers of multi-axial glass matt was epoxied onto the hull. Then it was gel shielded and then it was anti fouled with Copper Coat. I reckon it's now stronger than when it was first built... but the cost was a bit eye watering.)
 
snowleopard said:
Yes, bought new from Churchouse 2008

New price seems to be £19,995 + VAT today! I wonder why anyone buys new with that degree of depreciation.
Click to expand...

Many boats like Longboats seem to be bought by charities or Scout groups or other organisations who can get a lottery grant or similar for a shiny new boat much more easily than they can buy used and maintain.

If the boat is only worth <£5k, the new owner is probably not going to get a survey, and not going to expect it to be worth more than maybe £3k in a few years? If they're not going to keep it afloat, osmosis is unlikely to recurr. It's quite likely to see hard use, so an immaculate racing bottom might be a waste of time?

If it's only recently come out of the water, leave it to dry for a while and see if the blisters get smaller...
 
I'd pop, grind, fill, fair and paint.

Assuming a manageable number of blisters no more than about an inch or so across, that would be my preferred option, using an epoxy filler. A lot of blisters six inches or more in diameter would imply a more serious issue, and anything less than peeling would be a bodge.

If it's only recently come out of the water, leave it to dry for a while and see if the blisters get smaller...

Interestingly, when doing this, washing down regularly with hot water helps dry things out, as it helps to get rid of the free styrene which is the usual blister maker
 
What is the construction?
Simple single layer GRP, no sandwich?
How thick?
It might be a lot thinner than the yachts we are used to, so more care might be required with grinding. It may not be rigid enough for actual peeling, that's pretty brutal and doesn't respect double curved surfaces ever so much.

Gelcoat on dinghies will sometimes bubble, with no signs of the noxious chemistry of proper GRP pox. It could be due to thinner gelcoat? Or resins that bond less well to the gel?

It looks like weighing off ease of sale/value against effort put in. Which comes down to how free is your 'free' time?
Or whether you just like messing about with boats...
 
lw395 said:
What is the construction?
Simple single layer GRP, no sandwich?
How thick?
It might be a lot thinner than the yachts we are used to, so more care might be required with grinding.
Click to expand...

My Honnor Marine Longboat is very heavily built, and I have no reason to believe that Churchouse Boats ones are any flimsier.
 
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