Greetings, I sail a 1985 FC first launched around 1991. My boat has always had a barrier coat and shows no signs of osmosis or hydrolysis. In the next year or two I will be sailing her into warm water and staying there. My barrier coat is starting to peel in some area’s. My question is it worth it to pull the boat, strip off all bottom paint, dry her out and re apply barrier coat. I have seen a few FC’s with pox but never heard it talked about. What is your experience with unsealed hulls.
Frankly, it is most inadvisable to skip on hull maintenance. The cost of ignoring this can be excessive; I had one boat that took 2 years to dry out; and then I spent several months fixing it with copious amounts of West System.
I concur with John Cole about maintaining the hull. If the hull has never had blisters since 1991, I would “just go”. No hull material is perfect, with wooden boats, you periodical replace wood from time to time, with steel you weld new plate into the hull, with fiberglass boats, you repair fiberglass and ferro-cement boats, you replace reinforcing wire and cement. Regardless, it all the same, replace then sand or grind.
Rod
BCC IDUNA