Bottom Paint Failing After 1 Month

Aug 12, 2014
213
Universal Marine Montego 25 San Pedro, CA
@Rich Stidger - great reply, there is a lot of good info in there. Posts like this is why I love to read this forum ... after all, a smart man learns from his mistakes, and a wise man learns from others' mistakes as well as his own. :)

seattle-hunter-31 - it's all part of the learning process. Don't be discouraged. Find someplace around you that carries the free magazine 48 North ( https://48north.com/ ), they will have a lot of boatyards and tradesmen listed if you flip through a couple months' worth of mags. You can probably use that as a jumping off point to find yards that will allow you to do DIY work including bottom work. Not sure about the environmental regs up there, I'm sure they are fairly close to what we have down here in California ... meaning, some places don't allow DIY work on this basis.

Anyway don't let anyone here get you too down. When I bought our sailboat, I had never owned any boat before. Although my brother had, and I knew a lot in terms of level-of-effort / PITA, I still didn't really and truly understand what was entailed with boat ownership. As a recent "DIY adventure" story, I've had issues with our outboard (our only auxillary), where it overheats at idle. I was very close to spending a lot of money to replace the motor since all my efforts and testing/re-testing did not succeed. Finally, I found another outboard-specific forum (marine engine dot com) where outboard experts were able to guide me through the process, and basically encouraged me to not give up. It turned out to be something relatively simple/stupid, and I saved close to $3k vs. buying a new 9.9 HP outboard.

In terms of bottom paint, we were lucky that ours was in fairly good shape upon purchase - we didn't get a haul out OR a survey beforehand (yes, SBO, it's true!) and we went another year before our bottom diver (cleaner) told me yeah, it's time for a bottom paint job. We were further fortunate in that our old marina was located next door to one of the only DIY yards around, though I just paid them to do it for me. Mine was a steal at ~ $1200 for our 25' boat (fin keel). I haven't seen it myself since it went into the water but our diver said it was a good job and that it looks like it's holding up well. I've since had it hauled and surveyed (separately) and we ended up lucky on the overall condition of our 33-year-old boat.

It sounds like you just have some more work to do on the bottom paint; it's doable and you can do it! Hang in there sir. Go pick up 48 North.
 
Aug 12, 2014
213
Universal Marine Montego 25 San Pedro, CA
Good luck. If you paid someone to apply the paint, I think they owe you a redo.
P.S. - personally, I agree with this. I doubt you can "get your money back" in full, or even partially, but personally I would expect that any place worth its salt (if you'll pardon the pun) would stand behind their work at least for a couple of months.

It's not like you beached it or ran over a reef, and are now complaining that you lost some paint that way. But perhaps you can get "another coat" of paint (including the haul out) that could tide you over until you can properly re-do it yourself, or have it redone elsewhere. At minimum, perhaps you can get a little credit for future work at that yard. Good luck and hang in there!
 
Feb 14, 2012
24
Hunter 326 Seattle
Just wanted to hop in and give a recommendation for a local boatyard. For the past 4 years, I've been very pleased with CSR in Des Moines. This year I moved up to Shilshole, so I used CSR Ballard for my haulout this year. The cost of a haulout of my Hunter 326, including pressure washing, 1-coat of fresh paint, annodes, and barnacle paint treatment of my prop for $1,200. I was very pleased with their service and they didn't go a cent over their appraisal quote.

I usually could get the Des Moines location to waive the ~$300 haul fee if I did it in December. Both locations have been exeedingly fair to work with.
 

MitchM

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Jan 20, 2005
1,011
Nauticat 321 pilothouse 32 Erie PA
"If it needed to be stripped down, they should've said that, rather than telling me to go ahead and have it painted and see how it goes, because obviously the paint was a total waste. I'll now have to have it stripped and repainted again in the spring..."
Certain commentators above need a penalty for unnecessary roughness. here is a new owner trying to do right by his boat, who's been led astray by the yard and then is unnecessarily chastised by some who purport to be wiser on this board. I think the yard gave terrible advice to the owner and should give a full refund of $1800 including $500 haul fee. that bottom should not have been painted the way it looked. it needed a blast or scraping down to the barrier coat. find out what paint the yard used. send photos to the paint manufacturer. get another yard's written quote of how to g et this sorted out . then go to small claims court ...