HI all,

This past weekend I moved Escape Plan 40 miles downriver to get her pulled out onto the hard and get her bottom paint redone. When I bought her just over two years ago and had her surveyed we noticed a handful of blisters but nothing major that would cause concern. She was pulled yesterday and they started removing the old bottom paint. Well, they found some old blisters that weren't properly repaired in the past. The slurry blast was actually popping some of the old repairs off and others it was loosening. It appears that whoever repaired them for the PO had not removed all the bottom paint, so the edges of the repair materials was feather over the old paint. So now I have about 50 old repairs to re-repair.

So bottom paint and blister repairs are estimated to run me about $5300. The shop is also recommending that I put at least three coats of Interlux 2000E on after the repairs to prevent re-blistering at an estimated cost of an additional $2500.

Is the barrier coating worth the expense? My understanding is that a barrier coat still won't actually prevent any new blisters, but will reduce them. What can I expect if I do and if I don't put on the barrier coating? I have an old receipt where a bottom job was done before and supposedly an epoxy barrier coat put on then, but it is from 10 or 15 years ago.

Presently we are proceeding with lets get the blisters repaired first and then revisit the issue then to determine if we barrier coat or not.

Your thoughts and advice are appreciated.

Thanks in advance...