First: carpediemvz has only posted the one post---and not provided us with photos or other information over a peroid of several days--and this apparently was his first post. Hopefully he will give more information and photos.
Second: at this point it would seem far more sensiable to work with the factory, than to hire an attorney. With appologies to any attornies present, at this stage often solutions grind to a hault once litigation is threatened--and that is not what we want.
Third: Ryder's analysis of the various resins is correct. Even epoxy has some degree of permeability. It depends on the characteristics of the various resins, and additives.
Fourth: C dory in the past has used Cook Composites Gel coat. This is a high quality gel coat, which is certainly in common use. But CCP has a number of gel coat products, and I am not certain which one is utalized by C Dory Marine. There are different characteristics for each type of gel coat. There are also different qualities of polyester resin. We don't know exactly what resins are used currently (or in 2006) on specific boats.
Fifth: Basically the boat has to be built all at once to have good primary bonds in the hull lamination. The hull mold is cleaned, polished and sprayed with mold release. Then the gelcoat is sprayed down, next an opaque layer--generally it appears that the trim color gel coat (blue green, gray, etc) is applied to keep the light from shining thru the hull),
Then a layer of vinlyester resin (at least in some of the c Dory Marine products)--next a layer of mat, more laminating resin, coremat, or woven wroving, mat, roving mat and finally gel coat painted on the inside. There may be more or less layers depending on what part of the hull this is. If the process is interupted, or the resin (including gel coat) is not properly catalyzed, then there will be a defect--and separation can occur.
For example the boat's gelcoat is sprayed, and allowed to catalize, and the next layer is not sprayed until 2 days later, there could be poor bonding between the outer layer of gel coat and opaque layer. There have also been some isolated cases of poor bonding in other parts of C Dory construction (as with probably most other boating lines). The question is what the company does about the problem!
"Osmotic blistering" is fairly specific--and is related to the migration of water/water vapor thru the semi permiable gelcoat and resin to the mat layer, and wicking of moisture, then hydrolysis, of water soluable products in the resins, further pressure build up in the laminate and finally blisters. There can be laminate damage without blistering--for example the "floppy hull"--where there is extensive wicking of moisture, but no actual blisters. If you want to read further then one of the good articles is by David Pascoe:
http://marinesurvey.com/yacht/blisters.htm. (Read all of his articles on blistering while you are there).
Agree that if a boat is only kept in the water for short times and then is taken back out of the water and allowed to dry, that a barrier coat is not necessary. But, if one is going to go to the trouble to put on bottom paint, then it only makes sense to put the epoxy barrier coat on first. Trying to remove bottom paint is not easy physically and it is a toxic product.
Sure, some boats are in the water 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years or even 20 years--and don't show blistering--but I have seen a number of boats free of blisters for XX years and then all of a sudden have extensive blistering appear. In some boats there has been some breakdown in the laminate during this time, but it had not reached a critical point--either of hydrolysis or of osmotic pressure. Other brands or models don't ever seem to have blistering/osmosis or if they do minimal amounts.
Should a 2 year old boat develope blisters? No--do they? Ocassionally.
I realize that in some parts of the country (especially colder waters, or where the boat is not in the water for the entire year,) that barrier coats are not applied. However, there are processes going on which may eventually cause damage. The factory suggests that boats which are going to be kept in the water be epoxy barrier coated.
The 5 year warantee specifically excludes gel coat. But it does not have any statement about osmosis or blistering. It does address factory defects or workmanship.
Boat bottom paint has zero protective effect against blistering.
