Blisters

[twarnes]

Took my boat out a couple of weeks ago and have blisters all down one side of the thing. I have a 2007 22ve and can't believe this has happened. My friends 2007 22i has even more than me. I left mine in the water for three months. My old 2000 196 Ski Nautique i sold to my friend a couple of doors down has had his in for longer and does not have a single blister. Perhaps their hulls are made better?

TIGE has basically declined any warranty claims so far and now I'm wondering what my next steps will be.

Here is something that we found on the internet that suggests blisters have nothing to do with the gelcoat but more of a poor fibreglass job....

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/moreonblisters.html.htm

Lesson learned, don't keep these boats in the water as they are not made for it!

[JGR]

OUCH, I leave mine in the water as well. Will check the hull when I pull it out later this month.

Gook luck................

[somebodyelse5]

yea i wouldnt leave it in the water....

I love pulling mine anyways

[dom w. forte]

One of my customers left his 206 nautique in the lake in are area off and on for a week or to at a time and it blistered badly from the water line all the way under , nautique wouldnt warranty it they just offered to trade him out of the boat for an uncharge.
Also the family next door to me leaves their nautique in for a couple of weeks at a time and theres blistered too.

[MoneyPity]

Unfortunately when a fiberglass boat is left in the water for extended periods of time blistering can occur. Waxing a boat helps but it isn't a magic pill. Fiberglass will absorb water and as it swells blistering
occurs I read some where that the ph of the water also can affect it.

I have seen high end I/O's that blistered after 3 weeks in the water.

My previous boat would only be in the water for a week at a time and we would try to park so the sun warmed the boat. 13 years and no blisters.

My 20V is dried off as soon as we are off the launch area.

We had a 1968 SeaRay TriHull that finally blistered after 20 years or so. It was pulled out of water every couple of weeks but as my siblings and I aged and went in different directions dad tried to care for the old lady but age caught up with both of them. Hel1 we ran the haites out of that boat. We did not have an hour meter but we replaced a 100hp Merc with a 135 Merc because my cousin fried the electronic when he swapped a battery for dad and reversed +/-. We ran the 135 hard for a bunch of years and traded for a 145 Evinrude. Good Outboard and not as noisy as Merc. We skied the heck out of that boat and kept it for 25 years. SeaRay built one heck of a hull.

Dad replaced the TriHull for a 23 foot deep V SeaRay

[loudelectronics]

I leave mine in for months and no blisters. However from what I gather most manufacturers stopped using the antifouling paint because of costs and is now an option for those who leave there boats in. I believe this started after 2005?

Most people I believe do not leave there performance boats in the water. However some of us have the luxury of doing so or since we spent so much on the boat can't afford the 6 grand for the lift. I fall in both these categories.

Gelcoat is porous and is subject to osmosis. Some cheaper boats like bayliner for example may not have these issues because the gel is very thin and from what I have heard the gel is applied after it comes out of the mold. However I am not sure on this but what I was told by a dealer. The upside to this is that the gel will not crack cause it is so thin and does not take up water cause there is no place to go. The downside is the gel only lasts for a decade under heavy use and once luster is gone, its pretty much gone.

[MoneyPity]

I used antifouling paint on old SeaRay after the blisters formed. Typically most ski boats do not have paint applied to the lower hull on most boats I see.

Antifouling pain is typically used for boats that sit in water for long period of times and help keep the green junk from adhering to the hull.

[dihutchins]

Took my boat out a couple of weeks ago and have blisters all down one side of the thing. I have a 2007 22ve and can't believe this has happened. My friends 2007 22i has even more than me. I left mine in the water for three months. My old 2000 196 Ski Nautique i sold to my friend a couple of doors down has had his in for longer and does not have a single blister. Perhaps their hulls are made better?

TIGE has basically declined any warranty claims so far and now I'm wondering what my next steps will be.

Here is something that we found on the internet that suggests blisters have nothing to do with the gelcoat but more of a poor fibreglass job....

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/moreonblisters.html.htm

Lesson learned, don't keep these boats in the water as they are not made for it!

I have the same issue and Tige do not want to know; it's blistered 100%. Have you contacted Tige to see what they say?

[Timmy!]

I had a few blisters on mine last year and I don't leave mine in the water. They were fixed under warranty and no issues this year.

[tigesinaus]

do you have any pics of the blisters.. would be interested to see how bad it is/what it looks like..

[JGR]

Just pulled my boat out and all was ok...........

[twarnes]

What to do?

Well its getting closer to lake time again this year and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about my blisters...

1. Take another kick at the can with the TIGE folks. Love the bost just don't like the "blisters". I just can't believe a boat needs to be more out of the water than in it! Doesn't sound like a boat to me!

2. Take it to the repair shop and see what it will cost and determine if they can really fix it. I'm guessing a broad smile on the repair mans eyes when he sees this thing and i'm suspecting a 10K+ bill!

3. Fix it as mentioned in #2 above and apply the AntiFouling paint suggested by "loudelectronics"

4. Just get a boat lift and leave the embrassing blisters alone. I can just hear my friends now with other boat types ribbing me all summer long about this one. "Hey Todd hows your blister boat?"

5. Do nothing and take the boat out of the water more often. They will get bigger but the boat should still float!

6. Sell the thing and take a lose and buy a something else

[wallacmc]

twarnes,

I am sorry for your predicament. Unfortunately, you can scroll through the older threads and it will not take you long to find numerous threads on the blistering issue. I wish you would have joined Tige owners sooner. the problem isn't with the boat itself, it is with this type of construction on these type of boats. Noone knows the magic remedy for the issue except for to keep the boat out of the water when you are not using it. I know that may seem non-boat-like, but all one has to do is walk down any dock and see which boats get pulled out regularly and which ones don't. If there aren't blisters, there is moss/algae growing all over them at and below the water line. Yes, it is a boat, but you still have to pull it out of the water. Right now, I'm going through the pain of towing mine all the time just because I don't want to leave it in there as much as a week until we get the lift set up.

If you get a highend inboard, it will likely have gelcoat and be susceptible. Stick around the tigeowners and Tige, and you might be able to anticipate issues like these. I know it has helped me a ton already, and I've only had my boat for four months. The people on this site are great folks and will keep you steered in the right direction.

[ajholt7]

6. Sell the thing and take a lose and buy a something else

If you go this route, you better get something bottom painted or you will be in the exact same situation no mater what brand of boat you buy.

[MoneyPity]

If you go this route, you better get something bottom painted or you will be in the exact same situation no mater what brand of boat you buy.

Ditto................