Found a great deal on a Bell northwind in white gold. The boat has areas of white clouds inside. When washing the insides they go away only to return when the boat drys. I remember some of my other bells had smaller areas with the same issue. Is this a problem? If so, how can i fix it?
CE Wilson discussed this phenomenon
in a past thread, and he or another will answer your question. Almost certainly it does not indicate a structural weakness in the resin, just a surface flaw.
Guess
I don’t know for sure, and I’m sure CEW will help you out, but here’s a possibility.
Amine blush is a milky/cloudy when resin cures when the air is a bit damp. Although, I think Bells are vacuum bagged, so that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Is it possible these areas were touched-up with a bit of resin?
Amine blush looks bad, but isn’t harmful at all, so if that is it, no worries.
Thought of amine blush too, but Bell
has almost never used epoxy.
Acetone plus Penetrol
This phenomenon has been discussed several times on various boards. The resin Bell used reacts with water – usually water pooling in the boat for a while – to form milky white blotches or spots.
Acetone removes the blotches on my Wildfire.
To keep the problem from recurring you must either (a) keep your canoe permanently away from water in your garage or living room, or (b) coat the inside of the hull with some sort of water resistant coating.
I chose the second option, and find that Penetrol does a reasonably good job of preventing the blotches because it causes water to bead up. However, Penetrol wears off, so it has to be periodically reapplied. Someone else suggested varnishing the inside of the hull, but I don’t know if anyone has actually done that.
thanks
Thanks for the advice. Based on the white spots water line i bet they had the boat outside for this last rainy day. Other than this issue it appears to have very little use. Not bad for a sunday morning check of craigslist and $800 bucks.
Formula 409
is what I use. It works great and is inexpensive. I have no idea why it works, however a Bell rep mentioned it to me years ago and have have no need to try anything else.
Re the 409
You find it removes the spots, prevents them, or both?
Sounds like a good option if it can do both.
No, it does not prevent them,
just “disappears”. I just spray the hull interior with 409 and then give it a generous wipe with a rag. With my Bell boats, the situation is most pronounced beneath my removable kneeling pad where water has been trapped for awhile, and where I have gear stored against the hull surface that traps moisture. Chlorinated pools manage to make most of the hull interior white if it sees any water.
Chlorinated pools
Sounds like you need to expand your horizons a bit. 
My horizons are expanded just fine.
I help teach a solo canoe course at a H.S. pool during the hard water time here in the winter. However, Belize or some comparable destination would be more intersting, but a little harder on the wallet.