In post #8 (4th sentence) Stu explained as simply and clearly as anybody could why a boat that gets regular professional cleanings still needs to be painted.
To Paint or Not to Paint
- Thread starter redace45
- Start date
In Stu's post #8 he says "in a month or two your hull will be growing nasties". It won't take that long. You live in Florida. The water is warm. Nasties love warm water and grow with vigor. My boat is in the panhandle. I have a hookah and dive on the boat to clean it the first weekend of every month. I suggest you get a mask, snorkel, and fins, and dive on your boat to take a look just before your professional cleans it. It will be a mess. In particular, look at the prop and prop nut. Those white dots are barnacles that have attached and are growing. It takes a sharp knife to cut them off.
The water temperature here ranges from 65 in the coldest part of late winter to over 85 in August. In one month In July-Sep I will have a 1/8 to 1/4 inch coating of slime on the hull. This is with a new, in Jul 14, bottom paint job with a quality paint. I cannot imagine what it would look like without paint. Any bare metal (the prop and prop nut), and any other unpainted surface will have barnacles. Slime wipes away with a Scotch Brite pad. I sail my boat (requiring the engine to run in and out of the marina) two to three times per week, year round. In the winter it takes 25 minutes to clean the hull. In the summer it takes over an hour - if there are no barnacles to contend with.
I don't have a wet suit so when the water temp drops below 68 I don't go in. The boat doesn't get cleaned in the months December through March. In April this year I had a colony of barnacles all over the hub of the prop, extending half way out on each of the three blades on both sides. They had built out to about an inch from the surface of the prop. It took over an hour with a hammer and chisel to carefully tap them all off.
You may not want to spend the money for bottom paint, but you need it. As Stu says, it is your boat...
As to the statement about what the explorers used in their wooden ships. They careened the ships. That means moving into shallow water adjacent to a beach, let the tide go out and the boat would settle on the bottom. They used blocks and lines to partially roll them on their sides. The crew scrapped the bottom in between the tides. When one side was done, they would turn the boat and do the other. Deep water immediately adjacent to shallow, rock and shell free beaches were quite popular for this activity. The north shore of Santa Rosa Island in Pensacola bay was a favorite location to careen ships. In the late 1700s ships of the line started getting copper plate sheets applied to the hull. Copper prevents the growth with the result that the careening integral was greatly extended.
The water temperature here ranges from 65 in the coldest part of late winter to over 85 in August. In one month In July-Sep I will have a 1/8 to 1/4 inch coating of slime on the hull. This is with a new, in Jul 14, bottom paint job with a quality paint. I cannot imagine what it would look like without paint. Any bare metal (the prop and prop nut), and any other unpainted surface will have barnacles. Slime wipes away with a Scotch Brite pad. I sail my boat (requiring the engine to run in and out of the marina) two to three times per week, year round. In the winter it takes 25 minutes to clean the hull. In the summer it takes over an hour - if there are no barnacles to contend with.
I don't have a wet suit so when the water temp drops below 68 I don't go in. The boat doesn't get cleaned in the months December through March. In April this year I had a colony of barnacles all over the hub of the prop, extending half way out on each of the three blades on both sides. They had built out to about an inch from the surface of the prop. It took over an hour with a hammer and chisel to carefully tap them all off.
You may not want to spend the money for bottom paint, but you need it. As Stu says, it is your boat...
As to the statement about what the explorers used in their wooden ships. They careened the ships. That means moving into shallow water adjacent to a beach, let the tide go out and the boat would settle on the bottom. They used blocks and lines to partially roll them on their sides. The crew scrapped the bottom in between the tides. When one side was done, they would turn the boat and do the other. Deep water immediately adjacent to shallow, rock and shell free beaches were quite popular for this activity. The north shore of Santa Rosa Island in Pensacola bay was a favorite location to careen ships. In the late 1700s ships of the line started getting copper plate sheets applied to the hull. Copper prevents the growth with the result that the careening integral was greatly extended.
Well how' bout that? I must've stopped reading that post after the first 3 snarky sentences.
I apologize for my inaccurate post.
Ugly.
Had mine pulled today for a bottom job. Sand blast. 3 coats barrier coat and two coats of Trinidad. She will be as smooth as a baby's bottom!
Redace I think it's a valid question .
I'm over in the UK and bought a very cheap bilge keel ( 2 keels ) a few years ago .
It had not been used yet kept in a semi fresh water tidal harbour drying out in the harbour twice a day with the tide . The bottom was spotless.
Now I renovated it and for cheapness used normal gloss to paint as far as I can reach under . It's been back in the water 2 years and up until a month ago still pretty clean . So all I did is when the tide went out got a stiff brush and brushed it clean again . ( I did notice the bits of old anti foul I'd not painted over we're still clean though )
As for a mention of environmental ?? Anti foul is not exactly the most environmentally friendly paint is it . And I'm sure the organisms swimming past think wooo look at this unpainted nice habitat to live on . Maybe a bit like a floating barnacle nature reserve .
So I am slightly with you on this if a bottom job haul out is going to cost more than a boat is worth then keep sailing it and make sure your bottom scraping guy is not scraping the top coat off
ps I just sailed out of St Pete to big pine in a c30 I bought the other week . And I'm in Clearwater in a few weeks for a pirate camp for amputee kids if you fancy putting a bit of your sailing skill to use on a very very rewarding weekend .
I'm over in the UK and bought a very cheap bilge keel ( 2 keels ) a few years ago .
It had not been used yet kept in a semi fresh water tidal harbour drying out in the harbour twice a day with the tide . The bottom was spotless.
Now I renovated it and for cheapness used normal gloss to paint as far as I can reach under . It's been back in the water 2 years and up until a month ago still pretty clean . So all I did is when the tide went out got a stiff brush and brushed it clean again . ( I did notice the bits of old anti foul I'd not painted over we're still clean though )
As for a mention of environmental ?? Anti foul is not exactly the most environmentally friendly paint is it . And I'm sure the organisms swimming past think wooo look at this unpainted nice habitat to live on . Maybe a bit like a floating barnacle nature reserve .
So I am slightly with you on this if a bottom job haul out is going to cost more than a boat is worth then keep sailing it and make sure your bottom scraping guy is not scraping the top coat off
ps I just sailed out of St Pete to big pine in a c30 I bought the other week . And I'm in Clearwater in a few weeks for a pirate camp for amputee kids if you fancy putting a bit of your sailing skill to use on a very very rewarding weekend .J rowen Those pictures on "this is what it looks like with no bottom paint "looks to me like what happens when you don't use you boat for a long time ?? It is I'm possible imo for most of that to form if you were sailing it all the time . ?
It's a fact that a large percentage of boats in marinas never go out . So let's say the few days a year you do by spending the thousands you just have on a bottom job it's probably increased the distance you went ( to no where ) on the 2 days you did go out in the time you could spare by a mile or 2 and that 2 hours / 2 miles is probably the most expensive of your life .
Is bottom paint like Mother's Day ? Or Father's Day . Set up by the paint companies to keep you tied into buying from them ? It's a conspiracy
It's a fact that a large percentage of boats in marinas never go out . So let's say the few days a year you do by spending the thousands you just have on a bottom job it's probably increased the distance you went ( to no where ) on the 2 days you did go out in the time you could spare by a mile or 2 and that 2 hours / 2 miles is probably the most expensive of your life .
Is bottom paint like Mother's Day ? Or Father's Day . Set up by the paint companies to keep you tied into buying from them ? It's a conspiracy
To each there own. Don't paint if you don't want to nobody will care if you don't, except of course some future buyer. But it sounds like the boat is probably not worth much so your potential loss will be small. If you really want to save money: sell the boat and find a friend with a boat.J rowen Those pictures on "this is what it looks like with no bottom paint "looks to me like what happens when you don't use you boat for a long time ?? It is I'm possible imo for most of that to form if you were sailing it all the time . ? It's a fact that a large percentage of boats in marinas never go out . So let's say the few days a year you do by spending the thousands you just have on a bottom job it's probably increased the distance you went ( to no where ) on the 2 days you did go out in the time you could spare by a mile or 2 and that 2 hours / 2 miles is probably the most expensive of your life . Is bottom paint like Mother's Day ? Or Father's Day . Set up by the paint companies to keep you tied into buying from them ? It's a conspiracy
Your right the harbour next to my old mooring was in Amlwch Anglesey boats that visited hundreds of years ago noticed that when they left the were getting 2 or 3 knots more speed.
It turned out that the residue from the copper mines flowed through the harbour in the river and stripped the boat clean of crustaceans . So they would spend extra time there as the more time they spent there the faster they got to their destination ! The town once had 1 pub to every 4 permanent resident ( sounds like a great night out )