Daylight shinning through hull

O

oldgrowth

New member
Is the hull made of material that you can see through or light will shine through if it is not painted inside?

The reason I ask is because up front, about eight inches back from the U bolt you hook on, to winch the boat onto the trailer and four inches below the painted waterline, I can see daylight shining through my boat. It is an area about three and a half inches long and varies between three quarters of an inch to one and a half inches wide. It has a blue cast to it, but that is because the bottom of my boat is blue.

I have tapped on and pushed the area but have not noticed any difference to it and any other area. I am guessing it is just because the inside paint is not thick enough to block the light. Am I right or wrong about this or is this something I should be concerned about?
 
I do NOT think you should see light shining through any part of the fiberglass hull - I would want the factory to look at it pronto...


oldgrowth":170hfnze said:
Is the hull made of material that you can see through or light will shine through if it is not painted inside?

The reason I ask is because up front, about eight inches back from the U bolt you hook on, to winch the boat onto the trailer and four inches below the painted waterline, I can see daylight shining through my boat. It is an area about three and a half inches long and varies between three quarters of an inch to one and a half inches wide. It has a blue cast to it, but that is because the bottom of my boat is blue.

I have tapped on and pushed the area but have not noticed any difference to it and any other area. I am guessing it is just because the inside paint is not thick enough to block the light. Am I right or wrong about this or is this something I should be concerned about?
Click to expand...
 
Dave-

The fiberglass hull is translucent in and of itself. The outer layer pigmented gel coat is usually not, unless it is a very light shade. The interior paint (Zolatone) is opaque. If you have light in an area, the gel coat may be thin at a point where the Zolatone is also thin.

This does not mean that the hull is structurally weak at that point, only that light is coming through the translucent fiberglass where both layers of the interior and exterior coatings are thin.

If it bothers you, take a can of enamel or epoxy paint that at least somewhat matches the intrior color, and spray sthe area lightly with several coats of paint until the light disappears.

When your boat gets older and the gel coat needs buffing, remember where this thin spot is so you don't overly work down through the gel coat color.

Joe.
 
Wait a minute Dan. If the boat is left in the water, light shouldn't be able shine through the hull so you won't need the duct tape. Also if you only use the boat at night. Duct tape will only be needed when the sun is up and the boat is on the trailer.
 
My gut feeling was that it isn’t anything to worry about. Knowing that there are a lot of people on this site that know more about the C-Dory than me, I decided to ask. It is something you can’t see unless you take the panel off at the bow end of the V-Berth, then remove the flotation Styrofoam , then stick your head in and look down and back under the V-Berth.
Why would I do that, you ask. I was looking for every inch of unused space I can find. After all I only have a 16 footer and am trying to outfit it and carry as much as a 22 footer.

I better not let Terri read this. She is already worried that we are going to sink and knowing that you can see light through the hull, isn't going to help. She already thinks I use duct tape and hot glue for too many of my repairs.

Dan, I looked at your web site and you have some very good photographs. You are a very talented photographer. It is a good thing I am an honest person, otherwise I would steal them from you. Any thing you post on the web can be easily copied.
 
Dan, being professional and good are not necessarily the same thing. There are many armature photographers that are really good and many professional photographers that are lousy.

I agree about the resolution of web photos. Don’t know why it became popular to try and keep people from copying web photos. Anything you look at on the web is in your Temporary Internet Files Folder. You don’t need to copy it from the web page, just get it directly from your folder. I think maybe some web security experts figured they could make money selling the security to people. It is like a lock salesman selling you a padlock, but you don’t have a door.
 
Years ago there was a company in Minn. that sold a fiberglass boat that had no outside gel coat or inside paint. You could see the water line clear around the boat from the inside.
It was a HERTERS brand boat.
 
I will repeat, the way a C-Dory is put together, with gelcoat, fiberglass, and opaque interior (I thought that was gelcoat as well, but if you say it is paint, I won't argue), there is no area of the hull which light should be shining through. For light to shine through, the gelcoat and interior coating would both have to be gone. This is not a normal condition, and a "nothing to worry about" response does not seem right to me...it might not be structural, but then again, it might. I wouldn't want to take chances...
 
I've had the same experience. The first time I saw light shining through the green accent trim on the hull was while it was on the trailer in the back yard. I've had the boat since 2001 (its a 2000) and that was 2000 engine hours ago. Its not been anything but a visual curosity that I almost forgot about.

Shawn
 
Probably only an "oops" wher the gel coat and Zolatone interior paint are both thin.

Tap lightly on it with a small hammer. Does it sound the same as elsewhere?

Are there any screws or rivets nearby that you could use to gauge the thickness of the hull compared to similar places around it?

It it with a rubber hammer, starting out softly and going gradually up to a good lick or two. Compare to elsewhere? Any differential?

I wonder if a stud finder, which I think works on ultrasound, would show any difference?

Joe.
 
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