New swim platform bid, cosmetic blisters.

I just got what I think is a very decent bid to build a new teak swim step. It's almost exactly two boat bucks. The teak alone is a big piece of that. I'll be driving up to the yard to check progress in the next day or so, and get some details about the proposed swimstep design. It must be pretty basic, based on the price. But so far, it looks like the stern of my boat will get to become a thing of beauty, rather than a shameful embarrassment.

The bad news was that under the layers of bottom paint they say they have found some pin head size gelcoat blisters. Not such bad news, really. I have no problem with cosmetic gelcoat blisters on an older boat. For the many many boat bucks it would take to peel the bottom and rebuild it with a couple of laminations of vinylester, I think I'll just put up with the non-structural defect that is well below the waterline and virtually always out of sight. I have had very good success dealing with a series of similar blisters near the chine- just ground off the tops, filled them, and painted over the top one year at bottom painting time. The yard I'm using for this refit won't do that particular process, as they put a written warranty on all of their work and they say there's a chance that a grind-and-fill solution is only temporary. Very reasonable position. There will be more bottom paint jobs down the road, and if the pin head blisters bother me at that particular moment, I have a plan that has proven effective for dealing with them.