Bubbles in inner hull....what happened here?

[merik]

I noticed something strange last year just when I was about to leave my boat (Challenger 180) in winter storage. As you can see in the attached pictures, "bubbles" have emerged in the bottom storage compartment. Like the fiberglass layer have separated somehow. As far as I can remember, that surface used to be flat and smooth. Any idea to what has happened? Can I continue using my boat just like before or should I investigate this further?

Thanks!

Erik

 

[pincusa]

Looks like she has 'boat pox'! The blisters are water getting inside the fiberglass and pushing the glass up. Though usually they occur on the outside, I have seen them on the inside too.
You can pop it with a knife and then grind them out before refilling the area with epoxy. If you pop it, cover your face as sometimes they blow out with a lot of pressur.

But otherwise, I don't see why you couldn't continue to use the boat

 

[merik]

Thanks pincusa, this boat pox "disease" was new to me. There seems to be alot of information on the Internet regarding this problem. But I'm still courious to why this has happened. I guess it could be a consequence of always having water in the bildge because of the bad bildge pump location. But If that is the reason, then I assume this would be a much more common problem? I read somewhere that the blisters will eventually lead to delamination of the fiberglass and a slow death for my boat, I centainly hope thats not the case.

/Erik