Hi

Nice to see a new Skerry being built.

80 degrees and sunny might have heated the epoxy and set it off faster. I have not had epoxy show flaws when the temperature was higher though. I did not work in the sun. I've heard of bubbles forming if you worked while the boat was heating up due to the plywood outgassing. 

Your problem is possibly not in the epoxy but on the boat itself. Maybe you had some sawdust left over, or some other substance drop in from the air.

If you do not sand / clean your epoxy it will very likely flaw the next layer of finish or epoxy you apply. I had a fish eye problem and finally figured out that some oil spray had settled on my boat from some cooking I had done. This was a minute amount but caused alot trouble. Did you spray anything nearby, or used a BBQ nearby or did you use WD30 in the shop or...

I sanded and cleaned with solvent and washed it and got rid of the problem but it was very annoying. 

Having said all this don't get too paranoid about the finish. Its a boat and you will be walking on the interior. Soon you will be enjoying the boat and not seeing the finish so much.

Good Luck, I would love to see some photos.

Christine

http://www.christinedemerchant.com/skerry.html

The advice about checking for sources of contamination is spot on. Another source to consider is any rags you used to wipe down the surface between coats. Even trace amounts of contaminants can make it on to your surface. Always use freshly laundered rags. Don't use any rags that have been washed with fabric softener.

It also may be your epoxy. Despite claims to the contrary by manufacturers and distributors, given the right conditions, all expoxies will blush. I can attest from my own experiences that even slow expoxies that weren't supposed to blush did blush. Before recoating, I would always give a scrubbing to ANY epoxy that has cured for more than a couple of days.

Speaking for myself, I would sand down the offending layer and get it level before varnishing. This won't take long and you will always be happy you did it right. I'm also thinking small pockets in the finish will collect grime making the boat harder to clean. 

Varnish has very little body compared to epoxy and will not correct defects in the substrate.

Dusty

Great advice.  Here's one minor edit. 

"Always use freshly laundered rags. Don't use any rags that have been washed with fabric softener"    ***or dried with fabric softener sheets***

Folks, thanks for your advice.  We've completely sanded the fish eyes out and will put our fourth coat of epoxy on the interior tomorrow.  I think we found the source of our problem.  When reaching for a foam roller to use for tomorrow's coat, we discovered that the rest of our foam rollers were covered with dust from sanding etc.  Difficult to see but for the dust in the bag.  They were kept in a paper bag and the last one we used must have been full of the dust when we put the third coat on the interior and we just didn't see it.  A good reason for using rollers fresh from the package rather than opening a bunch and keeping them ready.  That's the only thing we can come up with because everything else was by the book given our careful cleaning with clean towels, etc.  We threw the rest of the foam rollers away and bought new ones for our final fihish tomorrow.  Live and learn.  Christine, thanks for your comments and I'll send you pics of our Skerry to your website.  I don't know how to post photos to this forum.  Thanks again, Bob H

Ziplocs are the boat builder's best friend.

Good luck,

Laszlo

the exact same thing happened to me on my 2nd coat on the exterior. I wondered if it had to do with the thickness of the roller I used, it had a thicker nap than recommended. I'm not gonna worry about it, but it's kinda funky it happpened to me as well.....

 I'll look for crop circles in the back "40" in the morning. Aliens? some kind of weird 2012 kinda deal?? :-)

 -Kristofer

Guess what folks?  The same thing happened again today with the fourth coat.  I'm frankly getting just a little tired of this because we're doing everything right.  We thoroughly washed the interior out last night with soap and water, rinsing completely, drying with clean, solvent free cloths, and applied the fourth, very light coat today.  We immediately noticed the same phenomenon occuring and the epoxy began mottling again soon after application.  There was absolutely no reason for this and I gotta tell y'alls it really pissed me off.  It was setting up exactly as it did on the third coat.  In an effort to minimize the fish eyes and resulting craters and sanding, we re-rollered the surfaces about ten minutes after initial application, and in the end we cured with lots of smaller specks that will be easier to sand.  But something's not right here.  And we've been using MAS epoxies as CLC recommends, BY THE BOOK.  It's interesting to note  that this has only occurred wiith our second batch of epoxy, having run out of the epoxy included in our Skerry kit after the second coat, which was beautiful.  But I'm done.  We're sanding this 4th coat as best we can and proceeding with varnish.  This is the first and last epoxy boat I'll do.  Thanks for y'alls help and Kristofer, I'm with you; I'm not gonna worry about it.  In the end, it's a freakin' boat.  Best,  Bob H.

I had the same problem with my second coat. Today I finished the third and have the same problem. This is very frustrating! Before I go to the fourth and fifth coat I wish I knew what I am doing wrong.

Mike

Mike, I feel your pain.  All I can say is that from all the reading and gleaning from this forum, I can only conclude that something contaminated the third and fourth coats.  I'll ge darned if I can figure out what it was; I even thought it could have been an open jar of paint thinner with a brush being soaked, five feet away from my Skerry.  Who knows?  But it is frustrating, especially when you go by the rules and are careful.  The only comfort I can take and I offer to you, is that when we saw the fourth coat behaving as the third, we immediately re-rollered with a miniscule light epoxy coat on the foam roller in an effort to spread out the craters.  It worked, and while it still yielded an imperfect finish, the resulting tiny "pin" prick mounds are a lot easier to sand than the larger craters and mottled ones.  If you want more info, send me an email to [email protected].