We’ve had two sets of gelcoat issues on Turtle. First, we’ve had a number of chips and holes, primarily along raised edges. These happened during the build, when the gelcoat was sprayed into the mold and then the fiberglass laid on top – in some corners, there are small air gaps between the fiberglass and gelcoat, making a chip inevitable. North Pacific has been good about addressing these, but they often want me to bring the boat somewhere to use one of their preferred people. In practice, this means going to Seattle and leaving the boat in a guest slip for several days (during acceptable weather). The logistics are difficult enough that we haven’t been able to get to them. Gelcoat is time-consuming and it’s hard to find people to do it. The one outfit I found in Kitsap didn’t finish the repair job, damaged the gelcoat when buffing it, and ran off with our color-matched can of gelcoat. I found this guy and North Pacific paid him for the rip-off job, so I kind of feel bad about that. Regardless, we are still seeing these and will likely get them fixed at our next big haul out.
The other issue is wide-spread discoloration as the hull ages.
I did bump up the saturation on these a bit, but the images accurately represent what the eye sees. Given some of the patches are very regular and look like repairs, my hypothesis is that a second round of gelcoat touch ups was performed after the boat was removed from the mold and the mix was slightly different. In this case, causing it to react differently to UV exposure. The issue is cosmetic-only. We have a master boat detailer in our marina who approached me one day and said “I think I can fix that.” He did a deep detail on the boat and all of the discoloration is gone. As the UV exposure continues, the patches will return. But, in his opinion, “all boats have this to some extent – the gelcoat will change color as it ages and it will do it at different rates depending on exposure, etc.” So, while I am disappointed this will be an ongoing issue, ultimately it will require only marginally more-frequent detailing to address. This detail took 80 hours, but should last two years. So, I’m calling this issue resolved (as it’s ever going to be).
These pics don’t do it justice, but she’s really shiny and sparkly – and all the colors are well blended and consistent.
