Friday, May 29, 2009

The B Word


Blisters. Ugh. We have known since the survey on May 5 that the S/V soon to be officially named Ceol Mor has cosmetic blistering on her hull. A lot of blisters...a whole mess of the boat pox. I could go into the long and lengthy explaination of the different types of boat blisters, the theory on why they happen and the various techniques used to correct them but its much easier to just tell you to GOOGLE IT!

The conundrum we face right now is complex and we are undecided as the best course of action to take just now. Since these seem to be only cosmetic in nature, there isn't the huge push to get the boat out of the water and dried that there would be if these were blisters that penetrated the gelcoat.

So. Do we sail her a bit for the next month or so, getting to know her and what her other needs might be before putting her in the yard for 2-3 months for repair or do we put her in the yard immediately and put off sailing until September?


My gut instinct is to schedule a haul out and lay up for her in July, sail her a bit for the next month so that any additional repairs or equipment installations can be handled at the same time as Ceol Mor's bottom job. Decisions, decisions... we could speed up the process by having her hauled now, giving her hull a bit more time to dry out before starting the blister repair. It IS rather humid just now and that will slow down the drying process. July and August should be quite a bit drier.


I hate these kind of decisions. I need a crystal ball to see what the weather will be doing in August. Anyone have one handy?

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