Originally Posted by
EdBerg
Do you have any pics of the surface you are concerned about?
If it is a commercially produced boat then it would be highly unlikely to be made with epoxy due to the cost of it, the end product would make it way too expensive to sell as it it about 3-4 times the price of "normal polyester" resin. If it was a specialist custom boat or yacht then possibly! On rare occasions you might find one made from vinyl-ester and that might only be in the very outside or top layers with the rest poly, again due to the cost. Most don't even use "Iso" and just use "Ortho" resin to save on costs.
I have come across quite a few cracks in the flow coats of inside storage areas in various boat brands, and they were mainly from the the boat workers spraying the flowcoat way too thick. It should be applied like paint and not like body deadener if you know what I mean. If the cracks/crazing go through or are on the hull bottom side as well, then it usually means that not enough glass and or reinforcing was used in the build and it is flexing to much in that area. I had that in one of my boats up the front in the bow section where it would be pounded by large waves, hitting the waves caused to it flex too much and crack, the addition of 4 extra layers of glass added the strength it needed and no more cracks. It was a bit of a pain in the backside to fix as it was in a confined space and it had to be sanded down to the glass to fix, and I hate sanding fiberglass with vengeance, did too many years of it.
If it is in a confined space then put a fan over it to blow the styrene out as it will take much longer to cure otherwise and don't forget to get resin rollers to work the air out of the laminate, don't just use a paint brush. If you do it properly then you will have almost no need to sand and can just apply the flow coat over it when its cured.
Just my 2 cents worth.