The guy I bought my boat from painted the whole boat. It is a 1989 24 foot, and it was a solid red hull. The gell coat looks like it was faided from sitting around (there are some small dings, etc. where I can see the old gell). He painted the bottom white. I have not been able to get my boat out of the water this summer b/c we just opened a coffee shop and the only free time I get, i get out on the boat.

Well, I finally took some time off this weekend and got the boat out. The boat will easily run 71 and I still have another 400 RPMs left. Anyway, lately I have only been able to get about 54 out of it. I pulled the boat and I have a ton of tiny paint blisters on the bottom of the boat. Would the blisters slow the boat down that much? Or would it be from the lake grime? I am still cleaning the bottom.

Also, what are my options at this time? I am guessing the bottom would need sanded/stripped. I figure I could just have the bottom cleaned up where water is in contact when sitting, and fade it back into the white. In the end I will need to strip the entire boat, but just want to get the bottom cleaned up. Any feedback/ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

If your going to have all that work done on the hull, you might as well have it blueprinted.

Before he painted the hull, he had the hull blueprinted. There are a couple spots on the bottom where the boat hit something and scrapped some off.

Both paint and gel coat will blister if left in the water for several weeks or months.

Both the lake grime and blisters will scrub off speed, and depending on how bad/dirty the bottom is, yes it scrub off that much.

It shouldnt...

I know a good number of people that leave their boats in for months at a time, no anti-fouling paint, and dont have blisters.

Their lucky, been there done that......not a good outcome.

So at their primary function, floating in water, these boats (fiberglass, not just Pantera) fail?

I have a 03 Powerquest 300 revenge thats has been on a dock since new. No Blisters at all. It gets taken out once a month or so and I clean the bottom with Slimmy grimmy. Looks like new when it's done.

The gell and the hull itself are fine. It is just the paint he put over it. I knew it was blistering, but mainly on the sides that are under the water. No big deal. I figured I would just change up the paint. I would much rather have a solid gell hull with vinyl. It is the very tiny paint blisters on the bottom that are new and are bothering me.

Here in Sweden we leave our boats in the water from early may to at least late september, with absolutely no problems.

99% of them don't even take the boats up to clean the bottoms, but still as new every spring.