WTF with the gelcoat on older sunseekers!?!?

Every sunseeker I've ever seen had teak decks with the exception of the superhawk one. Very thin teak decks over plywood laminate. Did yours origionally have teak decks that someone ripped off and filled in the screw holes and what you're seeing is the origional bedding compound marks showing through that used to be under the teak for years and years possibly?

Awlgrip

"They" have also been using Awlgrip on yachts and aircraft for years with very few problems, what is going on now is a recent phenomenon.

There is Alexseal, Du Pont, Intertnational out there alright but it is just a case of getting the shipyard to agree to changing what they use and then taking the risk that it will be no better or worse.

I am also not privy to the commercial arrangement between Awlgrip and the yards, if they are giving the top coat away when you buy the filler it's a hard deal to turn down from a yards point of view.

In general, decks are not easy to spray gelcoat with a consistent thickness, so rollers and brushes are often used. But this depends on the shape of the specific deck, if there are deep pockets or other difficult to spray areas.

We've got a friend with a SS who's having gelcoat issues, not on the deck, but at the waterline, transom, and aft areas of the boat. 75ish foot boat. (don't recall the exact boat he has). This is his 2nd or 3rd SS, and this is the first he's had issues with them. Not really pleased with it, and SS isn't of much help, obviously, because it's a 3 or 4 year old boat.

If you look at it, it's almost as though two different shops at two different times did the gelcoat on it.

For reference, his is (if I recall) in the 2004/5 vintage)

When 'Katalina II' was built at HDW we had a go with Sterling Paints. They were a new upstart coatings company at the time. If I recall most of their Tech guys had left Awlgrip to start on their own.

Katalina was the first superyacht they had ever quoted for, so offered a fantastic deal. What was not so fantastic was when the topcoat reacted with the primer. All 220' of the hull required quite a bit of Wet n'Dry to take back and start again. Boy, am I glad we did not have to pick that tab up!!

She was Awlgripped a few years later.

Hi,

Dave - On the last Kusch boat I was on I painted the ER Floor plates with Sterling Bright Aluminum. It survived a top end job and 4 units out of each engine and overhaul of two 3306 Gensets. That was one very good product.

Haven't heard much about it in recent years it now seems that the Awlgrip techies have jumped ship to Alexseal so the gossip goes.

Sterling is still going strong (unlike the one in my pocket) though now part of Detco.

sterlingpaints.com

In our area the Awl-Grip reps all moved over to Alexseal as well and their tech support has been better than excellent. As with any new product we've gone through some teething pains but they worked with us and sent chemists from Germany to refine the topcoat formulas for our warmer summer weather.

We have boats out there now over three years old (yellows, whites, greens and blues) that look like they did when shot but they all have been washed with mild soap only, as they should be.

While I feel it is the hardest paint out there and should last longer, it is still repairable (anybody remember Awl-Grip 2?). This isn't an Alexseal commercail though! In the past month I have shot boats with Imron 5.0, "standard" Awl-Grip, Awl-grip 2000, Interlux Brightsides, Petit, Devoe and Alexseal. They all have their pros and cons.

Bill,
Over here in Europe, 'International Brightside' hasn't been sold for about a year, which is a bit of a pisser, 'cos it was a good product.

Toplac only from now on I'm sorry to say.

Brightside was an enamel and Toplac a urethene. To me the old Brightside had a bit more 'give' in it with a wooden hull than the new poly.

Hi,

I had the same gelcoat problems with both my Sunseekers, a 1991 Martinique 36 and my current which is a 1994 Camargue 46.

I had the 46 painted with awlgrip three years ago and the boat was totally transformed and looking like a 2007 boat!