03/27/2007 5:18 AM Pacific Time I stuck my head into a compartment, looked aft only to discover a translucent light coming through the hull (starboard quarter at the water line). Noticed another spot towards the bow close to deck level. Did (does) Catalina have problems with laminations, because I don't see how light should be coming through the hull.
Aaron M Benham 33a Loomis Hights
Boat Name: Tidely-Idley: The never ending project
Model/Year: 1978 C22
Hull No. 8070
Hailing Port:
03/27/2007 12:02 PM Pacific Time That could indicate that at some point in the boat life, the hull was repaired in those areas. My boat is a project boat in every sense of the word and I have repaired two large holes in the hull. From what I can tell of the construction of these boats, the hull molds are sprayed with the white gel coat than a dark color gel coat(what ever color the boot and cove stripes are) and then layed up. Fiberglass is naturaly translucent and it is this dark layer of gel coat that prevents light from passing through the fiberglass. When I sand through the white gel coat on any part of my hull, I find blue gel coat under it and that area becomes tranlucent. All of the damaged areas on my boat (as well as the repaired ones) could be found by the translucence of the hull in those areas.
Properly repaired fiberglass can be just as strong and sometimes stronger that the original. Make sure you inspect those areas to be sure that is the case and that it was properly done.