Scare mongering or what!!

[clyst]

Being a wooden boat owner I'm not too worried about it but---------OSMOSIS! All the hype about moisture meters,blisters,capillary action etc is this as serious as surveyors make out?? I read pretty well all the boating press and have quite library of marine books but I'v never read nor heard of a GRP craft being lost at sea/sinking through osmosis.Since GRP has been with us for some 40to50 years surley by now it should be common place to see bottoms of boats hanging out?? which brings me to another point. All these Thousands of GRP hulls that have been produced in the last 40-50 years, how do you destroy them at the end of their useful life. They can't be recycled or burnt so what happens to them? has anyone destroyed aGRP boat I'v never come across a boat scrap-yard .What's to become of your Bavs and Bens in years to come is this going to become another legacy like nuclear waste for future generations to dispose of ??
Am I naive about osmosis ? Is there a safe to destroy GRP boats? May-be some one has some thoughts on this .

 

[cp99]

Re: boat pox

Osmosis is only a cosmetic problem, not a structural problem - unless you leave it untreated for thirty years. It´s worse in warm water and fresh water. You should see the boats in Durban, South Africa, where the water temperature in the marina sometimes reaches 30 degrees C or more. Osmosis or what? Impressive! Virtually every boat there has it, which means there is absolutely no price differential between those that have and those that don´t - sensible. No-one cares a jot about it - why should they? It´s not a structural problem. They eventually get around to fixing it, maybe after ten or fifteen years or so. The main people who worry about it are paranoid Solent sailors with their shiny yots who are terrified of anything which might affect the perfect finish on their boats. Who cares about Solent sailors anyway? There are no scrapyards for boats because they are too valuable and last forever anyway. Just about every GRP boat that was ever built is still around, unless it has been sunk or burnt out. In that way they are quite impressive (I´m a steel boat owner and fan so have no axe to grind in that department). Hope I've offended a few people here, I like to stir things up (shiny boat owners, Solent sailors, surveyors who make a living frightening people about osmosis).

 

[graham]

Re: boat pox

Can anyone name one boat that became unseaworthy because of it??

 

[alant]

Re: boat pox

It's not paranoid Solent sailors,
its a 'menage a whots it' between
(1) surveyors (who cannot confirm a yacht does not have it, but will quote high moisture levels anyway)
(2) insurers - who insist on a survey if you want insurance (as protection against loss/satisfying marina berthing regs/finance houses) & who luv to find any excuse to load policies or find an exclusion to any cover!
(3) Osmosis treatment companies - who are only too pleased for this con to persist but may be the only 'not guilty' parties.
As you mention - name some GRP boats that have sunk due to structural damage.

 

[FlyingSpud]

Re: boat pox

I bought a boat about 8 years ago the surveyor said had the pox that ‘would need working on day’. I sold her this summer, untreated and the buyer’s survey said the same thing. I could not see a thing.

BUT the new boat I bought had it bad. Out of the water the blisters were obvious and when pricked sent out a nasty looking ooze, so how can this not be a structural problem?

The vendor dropped the full price of treatment so I am not that bothered, in a yard over the winter I am even ducking the cost of wintering her, but I would have been worried about leaving it much longer.

 

[jonjo]

Re: boat pox

> The main people who worry about it are paranoid Solent sailors
> with their shiny yots

You can add yanks and just about any other country listed as having HotVac osmosis treatment centres.

> There are no scrap yards for boats because they are too valuable
> and last forever anyway.

But there are many cheap boatyards with a collection of motley old yachts out of the water beyond a point of economic restoration to a seaworthy state.

 

[Guest]

What about the polymite

Scientists have identified something similar to the Teredo worm which attacks wood. Labled the 'polymite', it belongs to the 'Pundiw' group of mollusc species. It has to rembered that oil is vegetable matter/wood so it is not surprising that nature has not produced a natural 'hoover' effect.

The more 'poly' products that find their way into landfill the more they breed apparently, and it is estimated that things like GRP boats will probably only last about 20 years.Fortunately for us, if you keep boats in water these 'polymites' cannot mount an attack as they are land based.

 

[clyst]

Re: What about the polymite

The word Bollocks springs to mind--- correct me if i'm wrong !

 

[AndyL]

Yes, but I\'d rather not in case the builder

puts a Mafia hit out on me.

Let me simply say we had daylight visible under the engineroom and it took 6 layers of glass and 5 of epoxy to re-do the bottom.

 

[jonjo]

Re: What about the polymite

Was that in the April edition of Yachting Monthly?

 

[chriscallender]

It seems to me that people are forced to be paranoid about osmosis because everyone else is.

You end up with a boat that is unsellable/greatly reduced in value if it develops blisters and that is the bottom line rather than any immediate impact on seaworthiness.

 

[rich]

Re: boat pox

cp99, come over to moter boat chat, and have some fun!/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

rich )

 

[kds]

Re: boat pox

Yes - it is structural. The loss of structural strength is more easily seen in dinghies which have thinner skins, but in our boatyard there is an 18ft. twin keeler which lost its rudder skeg last season and one keel this season. The GRP is almost friable. Read Hugo du Plessis latest which gives a very balanced view and agrees that there is far too much hype and panic treatment.
Wood is the best answer - if it is epoxy sheathed !

Check out some pictures of my boat at;
[link]www.canongrange.co.uk/boat/[link]

 

[ghostwriter]

Proof of the porridge

it's all true folks !!!

the only thing wrong in Vic's post (but probably just a typo problem) was that this polymite belongs to the Pudniw group instead of the Pundiw

remember that the most knowledgeable , intelligent and sane person around here , none other than NigeCh , lord of Conundrum , keeps his overgrown dinghy all year long in the water , what better proof of what Vic is saying can one get ??? /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

 

[MADFISH]

Re: boat pox

GRP Boats don't last forever. They tend to get abandoned in Sailing and Yacht Club compounds. The only ways I have found to dispose of them are to a local boat building college or landfill.

I have sent two to landfill this year.....

Anyone have any better ideas?

 

[Guest]

Re: Proof of the porridge

Thanks for pointing that out Ghostwriter !

That NigeCh - Is he the one that thinks that all of us are faking it ?

 

[Guest]

Re: What about the polymite

It was in one of them Jonjo !

Quite a few years ago now. So many people believed it that it took about six months to deny it was true.

I'am still not convinced though. Scientists are finding new species of bugs coming up with the oil from drilling platforms in the North Sea. They discovered them eating plastic coffee cups.

 

[ghostwriter]

His lordship of Conundrum

would Nige say something like that ???? clearly that one must depend on the time of day , the thickness of the purse , the promille (promilleage ? ) in his blood , the mood of his fair lady , the number of cars parked on his private yard , the sunrise/sundown times and an infinity of other weird factors....but when it comes down to livening up a dead party we'll all have to admit that compared to that fella , we're indeed all faking.

the key to his meanderings , as seen at the neighbours , used to be : extra jocum, remotum joco

 

[NigeCh]

Faking it for real

I've faked it for years and got away with it - I once wrote a very long post several years ago here on polyester hydrolisation. And yes, my overgrown dinghy, the same as Ghostwriter is about to purchase has now been in the water for 3 1/2 years ie 9 months a year in seawater and 3 months a year in a freshwater marina. She's dries out for 3 days a year for scrubbing down and anti-fouling.

 

[vyv_cox]

Oil bugs

I saw that film. Wasn't Raquel Welch in it? I especially liked the bit where the bugs started eating her bikini top, unfortunately made of the same plastic as coffee cups. Saved at the last moment by our hero, who realised that the bugs couldn't live in chocolate, which he spread all over her bust. Great images.