Play the waiting game every time, even brand new boats have some moisture in their hulls. If you are going to strip off the antifoul anyway, by all means use a low temporatute epoxy as the primer before re antifouling but do NOT rip in to the gelcoat, you will probably do more harm than good.

If it eventually gets really really bad then get it done properly in a heated shed but if you get a quote for this you will probably find that it will come to nearly half of what you paid for the boat.

Thanks for the response Jonathan - useful.

 I will be stripping the antifouling as it needs doing, fairing filler around keel-hull joints needs doing and various skin fittings need replaced or at least checked, so it seems probably the most opportune point I'm going to have to epoxy for preventative purposes is now.

 I take your point about NOT ripping into the Gelcoat (I certainly don't want to make things worse), I'd assumed that I'd need to lightly abrade to help encourage adhesion of epoxy to gelcoat - but maybe not? Certainly if I can get away without having to abrade the surface it will keep me smiling as it's much less work. Perhaps I should look at some tins of epoxy and see what the instructions say!

 Thanks again

Thoroughly endose what Jonathan says. I've seen many a boat wrecked by chewing it up below the waterline, then the expensive repair fails time after time because of the differing levels of water permeability of the materials used.

Leave her well alone!

I'd recommend you to remove the antifouling at the end of the season, (use Stripit and follow the instrctiions - its brilliant and very cheap,- provided you wear enough protective gear) leave out of the water all winter this will give her a good dry out, give her 2-3 coats of Primocon in the spring, (if this amout of paint can keep wood & steel completely dry wehen immersed for years, it'll keep a GRP hull dry as well. Then 2-3 coats of antifouling paint (this of course will only half work anyway).

Best bet is to have her out of the water every winter, if not then every other winter. This lets them have a good prolonged dry out!

Hunter Boats produced very superior hull mouldings (on a par with the later Jeremy Rogers Contessa boats), I have never come across any of them with a significant hull problem, and, I'd bet no one else has either. You just have to look at how well all the Impalas and Sonatas still look and how sucessful they are at racing 30 years after they were built, poorly built boats just couldn't do that.

You'll really enjoy the Sonata, they are magic boats, probably David Thomas's best design.

Hi

I once owned a Jeanneau Fantasia which the Surveyor also identified as having areas of wicking on the hull.

 After a few seasons I deciced to strip the antifouling off and Gelsheild the bottom. The actual Gelsheilding process was a doddle to do as each coat is a different colour but the stripping off the antifouling was a painfull job. I used a tungsten bladed scraper attached to a hoover and it took a long time. Definately worth the effort though as when I came to sell  the boat the surveyor's test should up very little moisture in the hull.

Good luck!!

My boat when surveyed 3 years ago was found to have been epoxy sealed at sometime -suggestion was that there were some areas of moisture BUT as Surveyor didnt reccomend any major work and 30 year old hull is heavily laid up I decided to leave well alone.

Phil