will bare fiberglass absorb water

[BSR001]

I ended up having a problem when i used epoxy primer in place of gelcoat on a jetski hull when i pulled it out all the gases had not excaped the primer yet and it made a big mess so i sanded it down to bare fiberglass and re epoxy primered it.it came out with a bunch of pinholes which i was expecting but im wondering if i should continue on with this hull i can live with it being ugly its gonna be a beater ski but im debating if i want to sink more money into it to finish it.so will it absorb water i used vinylester resin
thanks

[StianM]

Bare fiberglass will to my knowledge absorb water.

[Stumble]

Absolutely it will absorb water, and the open fibers of the glass mat will act like a wick to help pull water deeper into the hull. This is at least part of what is responsible for causing blisters on a hull.

My advice is to just sand smooth the part of the hull where the damage was, to smooth, then apply a thin barier coat of epoxy to act as a water proofer. Try adding a little coloring agent into the epoxy and you can actually make an epoxy patch that won't look to bad. This isn't a professional finish job, but should work for a 'beater' boat.

[PAR]

I'd add, you have to seal the 'glass with regular laminating epoxy first, not with epoxy primer, which is little more then paint. Once the surface is sealed, you can proceed to priming and finish coats.

A single coat of unthickened epoxy offers very little protection from scratches and dings, which could expose the mat core to water ingress again, so consider a few coats of straight epoxy, then prime and paint.

[ondarvr]

The other thing to look at is how much time will it spend in the water. Water "will" wick into the glass, will it create a problem during short term emersion, probably (rarely) not. It is better to coat it with epoxy, but even if you don't you probably will never see a problem.