Yacht Surveys
How are osmosis and delamination judged on a pre-1980 GRP sailing yacht?
On a hull of that age moisture is rarely a yes-or-no question; it is a matter of grading. What decides the outcome is not whether blisters exist but how widespread they are, how deep they run and whether they have reached the laminate. All three are measured and mapped rather than estimated.
Why it works this way
The resins of that period were less water-resistant than today’s, so a forty-year-old laminate almost always carries some moisture. A verdict given without measuring extent, depth and moisture distribution separately is a guess — and the cost difference between surface blistering and laminate-deep osmosis runs into multiples.
Related services
Serkan Kotel · independent yacht surveyor · IIMS · ABYC · MCA
