Carver Extreme Blisters

Was the boat on a warm small inland lake? I have seen a lot bigger issue on the boats that come from warm water inland lakes that are in the water year round. Not just Carver, every brand if it does not have a good barrier coat on the boat.

There are many if you do some searching online. My source was personal experience with customer boats of all brands that have suffered the same problem as your boat.

My '98 Carver 355 ACMY had "several dime sized blisters located mainly on the starboard side" according to the surveyor when I purchased her in May 2010. When I pulled the boat to do a bottom job 6 months later I found 150 blisters all about dime sized spread pretty much evenly throughout the entire hull.

I did the repair and painting myself over a 3 month period. The boat has been in the water a year now and no issues that I'm aware of. The boat was bottom cleaned within the last month and the diver did not report any problems.

The boat previous to my purchase was in a private slip in SE FL that I believe was brackish water.

Tim

I have a Carver 370 MY and I had it pulled this winter for a bottom job and some other work. (I am Lake Texoma in North Texas). We found 22 quarter size blisters and about 4 large blisters. I had it bottom painted in 2008 when I bought it and at that time it had about 33 to 38 blisters. I thought this time there would be a lot fewer. At the boat yard they say it is just the way the glass was rolled and if it was not rolled tight (meaning leaving bubbles) that it would always be a problem.

I guess I will see if the last two repairs and bottom paint make a difference the next time it is pulled for painting.

There is definitely a correlation between the warm freshwater and the blisters. I have never had even one on my boat, and the 100+ I have been involved with selling in the area have only ever had 1 or 2 small dime size blisters on 4 of them.

I think the cooler water and the combination of being out of the water for the winter is the difference.

was the hull coat with a epoxy paint ? It might be worth the money to sand her down fix and then epoxy the bottom...

I wouldn't rely to much on a diver finding small blisters. It's sometimes hard to see them when the boat is hauled let alone in the water. Apart from that when you're in the water you can't realy push hard with your thumb to find out whether a spot gives or not.

A few years ago, I encountered the same issue on a 2003' 42' Regal, kept in Pompano beach, FL in salt-brackish water. The boat had pea sized blisters every inch, and everyone seemed to think the resin was mixed too hot and it trapped small air bubbles in the first or second layer of the laminate. Anyways we had the bottom peeled and dried, and 6 coats of epoxy, and bottom paint......it didn't come back as far as I know....... a year later when we hauled her for a bottom job, there were no blisters.

Research I've read concludes blisters are caused by air voids/poor wetout
under the gelcoat.
Hull Blisters on Boats and Yachts - by David Pascoe, Marine Surveyor

Now, wait til you see the boats coming in from that "new" trading partner who owns a major chunck of the US debt. Mass produced boats priced attractively cannot be high quality . I get quite the kick out of the modern sea Ray, Sabre, Maridian that does 30 Kts and is a "planning" hull..what a joke, the stern is buried deep in water, the wake is enormous and if not for the horse power it would be doing about 8kts, the hull may be designed to plane but the stern can never get up. Needs surface piercing drives or I.O's

I would say 30 knots is planing to me and fast enough for most people. Most people will not own I.O.'s if the boat is kept in saltwater as they are a maintanence nightmare. Most owner's cannot dock one of the boats you mentioned with twin inboards and a bow thruster, so surface piercing drives are out of the question for maneuverability and they are really bad in a following or very rough sea and the props keep getting unloaded.

Most of these boats you are talking about squat so much because they have tunnels for reduced draft, better efficiency, and better shaft alignment. Tunnels are going to make the vessel squat more because there is less flat running surface aft to provide lift.