My thoughts on this old ass thread:
:eek: :confused: :rolleyes:

Come on now guys !!!
I see some saying "there has to be more to this than you are saying".
Let me say this !!! A DONZI is a boat right?
Boats are designed to be in the water, right??? So, what can any individual do to a boat (short of a propane torch) to cause ....forty-nine (49) blisters per square inch!!! and even on the deck & interior.....unbelieveable! A Formula boat would have been back at the factory before the sun went down. DONZI should be ashamed under any circumstances that the boat did not hold up better. My Formula is 9 years old, the gel is perfect & the painted graphics are not even faded.
Come on DONZI- act like an adult
:confused: Replace the boat and eat the cost. It's only small "potatoes" compared to lost sales. ;)

[ 11-26-2001: Message edited by: 93formula ]

yeah i think donzi is is the wrong they should have given him a new boat blistering like that would never be properly fixxed. Sinc eit was caused by somekinf of mistake when the gelcoat was applied it go tme thinking. Gelcoat is the othermost barrier of a boats structure. Its good condition is esential in contruction of a boat.

Would you accept a year old "new" car that the structural portions of the chassis rusting and rotting away? Would you be happy to have welds that were incomplete poorly done and rotting? Lets say no. and your local ford dealer says its fine but we will fix it. So theyoffere to reweld your chassis by scrapin goff the old rusted metal from teh welds and just ad new metal over rusted chassis beams. Is that a permanent fix or a bandaid that will break again very soon. Reguardless of weather you think its a good or bad fix, should you pay the same price as a new???

Let say our imaginary car was a truck and you liek dto tow really heavystuff with it right at the limit of the capacity. And you also liek to drive it in mud and water. Arn't trucks supposed to be able to do these kinds of things??? YES!!!! Will mud and water and heavy towing eventually cause problems with the truck??? YES!!!! Should it happen within the first year of owning teh vehicle??? NO!!!! Well heavy towing maybe but that is covered under warranty if you kill a tranny and once fixxed the truck will be the same as if had just left the factory. Where as a boat gelcoat will never be the same.

So that my little rant. It just pisses me off that onzi is jerking this guy around. Even if he left the boat in the water My 1987 scarab is in better shape that his NEW donzi. Christ I SCUBA dived in wrecks (literally) that wern't as f*cked up as his boat.

Since 7 is a lucky number, I bet Donzi is just waiting to see how many pages this thread is going to go on. I cant believe that their are no responses from the factory on geeting this taken care of. They are finally fixing my uncles 38 Daytona, thank god, good luck to you. ;)

What is the latest. My dad was considering a Pro Line, which is made by the same company as Donzi and I told him to look at something else due to their customer service. I used to like Donzi until I owned one.

As some folks know, my boat was recently transported to Florida to the Donzi factory to have the gelcoat ground off and replaced.

Today, I received an interesting call from Donzi Marine. It seems that they have identified a second defect with my particular boat.

I talked with Dick Marvin at Donzi Marine and although they have not started work on my boat yet (new schedule is this Wednesday - 01/14/02 for the grinding to begin), he did tell me that it looks like when it was made back in 1996, a ceramic barrier (or something like that) was applied over my whole boat (under the gelcoat). He told me that this barrier is supposed to stop at the water line and on my specific boat, it does not.

Couple that issue with defective gelcoat (per the joint survey) and my boat stood little chance to resist the onslaught of blisters.

I’d appreciate any input from any boat construction experts that frequent this board regarding the coating that I poorly described above.

Regards,
-Chris


P.S. One point of clarification, it should be noted that I cannot and do not speak for every boat built by Donzi Marine, the issues I'm writing about deal specifically with the problems associated with my boat only.

[ 01-25-2002: Message edited by: chrker ]

Well it sounds like at leaste things are moving forward. Get in touch with Glass Dave about this. He has done lots of warrantee work with Donzi up in his area. He may be able to help you out.

Jon

Chris, What else did they tell you about the barrier? Do they have to remove it as well? Sounds like they have things under control. Good luck.

DONZIMAN2:
He told me that on my boat it is a layer that was applied between the wet-out mat and gelcoat. He also said it should not be beneath the waterline but on my particular boat it is. I thought he called it a "ceramic barrier" but I’m not 100% positive.

I have been forced to educate myself on boat construction lately due to the issues with my boat, but I don’t recall reading or hearing about this layer between the mat and gelcoat. Not that it really matters a whole bunch because it will be ground off with the defective gelcoat but I am just wondering what it was and if it was a common boat construction technique.

I’ll hold off agreeing with you that things are under control for the time being however, time will tell and the results should speak for themselves.

Regards,
-Chris

P.S. I do applaud Mr. Marvin at Donzi for being forthright with me regarding their findings so far.

[ 01-25-2002: Message edited by: chrker ]

Badcat,
Tell your dad not to rule out ProLine, they build a great boat. Donzi has learned a lot from ProLine over the years i.r.t. construction and quality.

Chris,
There is a chance I may be at Donzi next month. If I am and your boat is still there I'll try to get some current info. I'm not sure about the extra layer you describe. This may be a layer they use to keep moisture out of the coring, majority of the coring would be above the waterline.

[ 01-15-2002: Message edited by: RickS ]