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Advice needed on Bottom Paint

Need some Help 
4K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  JimRockfish 
#1 ·
Good Evening everyone,

I recently bought my first boat and am not originally from the Chesapeake Bay area. The past three months I kept the boat in a slip without any bottom paint and to say the least had a "great" time getting all those little barnacles off the bottom of the hull. Some glue from the barnacles are still on the hull but I think I cleaned it pretty well.

Anyways I am trying to avoid so much work for next year and looking into bottom painting the boat. I am not sure where to start but I will be keeping the boat in the water from April until December. Is there a special type of bottom paint that I should be using since the boat will not be in the water year round? If it helps the boat will be sitting on a trailer and more than likely put in the barn back up near Pittsburgh during the winter. Also if anyone knows or has a place near Annapolis that I could keep a trailer during the season that would be help too. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help.


Andy
 
#3 ·
If you are leaving it in for the summer, you do need to paint it and pulling for the winter is not a problem. I used Pettit SR 40 in the mid-Bay area and had great success. Not cheap, but works well. I had zero growth this year. Whatever you use, make sure you prep it well and prime it.
 
#5 ·
welcome 58.

sounds like there is no bottom paint?
If so, I would suggest to have it professionally prepared and lightly sanded and painted (prob 2 coats) of ablative paint (soft, not hard).
I think most people have gone the soft route (might depend on size of your boat). I would suggest 2 different colors. that way you can see when you need to recoat. the soft disolves instead of building up yr by yr. also you can take the boat in/out/storage with out worrying about losing effectiveness.

I used to use the expensive interlux, but the last few yrs have gone to west marine soft on sale for $90-100 a gal. I have a 24 footer that 1 gallon will do every year.
I find the west marine as effective as interlux.
good luck.
 
#6 ·
Second on the lightly sand-blasted or sanded. If you don't have a clear scum-line, you should drop her overboard and use a grease pencil to mark the waterline stem to stern. If you have a few marks, you can snap a chalk-line once out of the water for tape.
 
#7 ·
I looked into bottom paint the year before last. If you keep it in the water, you absolutely need bottom paint, as you found out already. As mentioned earlier, if it has no paint now, you will need to sand and prime it before painting. From what I remember reading, its alot of work. To avoid screwing it up, I was going to have professionally done. Also, most paints should hold up without a problem through trailering a few times. But the cheapest source I found for paint/primer/dewaxer, etc., was wholesalemarine.com. Never ended up ordering from them, so dont know how the service is, but their prices were the best. Anyways, after doing all the research I ended up keeping the boat in a boatel rack instead.
 
#8 ·
Thanks for all the replies. I have a 23' laguna and there is no bottom paint on the boat as of now. Are there any downfalls in bottom painting a boat? Does it effect the resale value or turn away potential buyers? I plan on moving up to a newer boat within 2 years. It is an 88 but the haul is in really good shape. I have a slip available right outside my apt. so I feel like driving to drop in the boat to go fishing would be ridiculous. Can't wait for Spring btw.

As of now I think I am going to get some quotes on having it professionally done vs. doing it myself. Im not doubting my ability to sand and paint it but I don't want to irreversibly harm the haul.

Thanks for the help everyone.
 
#9 ·
Thanks for all the replies. I have a 23' laguna and there is no bottom paint on the boat as of now. Are there any downfalls in bottom painting a boat? Does it effect the resale value or turn away potential buyers? I plan on moving up to a newer boat within 2 years. It is an 88 but the haul is in really good shape. I have a slip available right outside my apt. so I feel like driving to drop in the boat to go fishing would be ridiculous. Can't wait for Spring btw.

As of now I think I am going to get some quotes on having it professionally done vs. doing it myself. Im not doubting my ability to sand and paint it but I don't want to irreversibly harm the haul.

Thanks for the help everyone.
I think first time to get the base coat on, and the first coat of ablative, if you can afford it professionally, I'd go for it. around here, it'll need it every year, but easy to do yerself on top of the pro job.

the main downside, is if you use the hard paint, the layers build up and add weight to your hull, and more sanding involved to prep, but the soft paint gradually wears away. After 12 years, I switched to soft last season and glad I did. I have never had to pull my boat mid-season to scrape since I had it, but part of the build up depends on how often you use it. it gets pressure washed every winter haulout by the marina.
 
#10 ·
Agree with everything said.. couple of things to add: I have found two cleaners that do a decent job of getting the barnicles off the bottom - Starbright barnicle and zebra mussle remover, and "on and off" (forget who makes that).. on painting the bottom - concur get it professionally done. I got the bottom done by a yard, seemed expense until next year when I decided to repaint myself (while the boat was on the trailer).. What a mess! Much harder than it seems, and we didn't have to do the bottom prep.
 
#12 ·
I painted my wood skiff bright red with natural wood trim and used Petit white bottom paint to offset the red. The boat was tied up to a dock most weeks for several days at a time and that white paint remained bright white from Spring to Fall. I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not suggesting you paint the bottom white, just for anyone else that is afraid to go with white, don't be..
 

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#13 ·
Good Evening everyone,

I recently bought my first boat and am not originally from the Chesapeake Bay area. The past three months I kept the boat in a slip without any bottom paint and to say the least had a "great" time getting all those little barnacles off the bottom of the hull. Some glue from the barnacles are still on the hull but I think I cleaned it pretty well.

Anyways I am trying to avoid so much work for next year and looking into bottom painting the boat. I am not sure where to start but I will be keeping the boat in the water from April until December. Is there a special type of bottom paint that I should be using since the boat will not be in the water year round? If it helps the boat will be sitting on a trailer and more than likely put in the barn back up near Pittsburgh during the winter. Also if anyone knows or has a place near Annapolis that I could keep a trailer during the season that would be help too. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help.

Andy
Andy, if you are going to trailer the boat periodically I recommend you use the new Vivid paint by Petit. It is a hard ablative paint that can be trailered without damaging the paint. I switched to it last year because I keep my boat slipped from April thru November, then trailer it from the end of November thru April when I put her back in the water. Soft ablative paint works best, but will rub off easily when you trailer the boat. Not good considering the expense. I did the entire bottom of my boat and it turned out awesome. I sanded all of the old paint off down to the gel coat, slvent washed it, then applied two coats of Interprotect 2000E before painting the bottom with Vivid semi hard ablative paint. The interprotect epoxy primer is not mandatory but well worth it. It protects the hull against blisters, and provides a great surface for the bottom paint. If you are a do it yourself type and you plan to sell the boat, I would just rough sand and paint the bottom with Vivid. The only set back with the Vivid paint is on the sides of the boat where the water line is, you will get some barnacles, but they will not be welded on and will easily spray off with a pressure washer. I plan on painting the sides of my boat with Interlux Extra to avoid ANY barnacles next season, but will keep the Vivid on the bottom of the boat where the trailer makes contact. I don't recommend hard paint as it is a royal pain in the arse to maintain and it builds up over time. For a trailered boat IMO Vivid paint by Petit is the best choice. When I hauled out this year the paint was intact. The bottom job I did on my boat would have cost upwards of $2500. I did it for the cost of the material (around $500) and a weekend of time. From now on all I need to do is touch up paint every few years or so.
 

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