2001 Catalina 250 Bottom Paint Barrier Coat Question

May 12, 2021
1
Catalina 250 San Diego
I recently acquired a beautiful 2001 Catalina 250 Wing Keel. The boat has never been bottom painted. Its use was fresh water and very limited. It has spent most of the last 2 decades in an airplane hanger. With me that will change to being in a slip in Mission Bay, San Diego California almost full time.

I am considering having the bottom painted at Driscoll. Their process for a never before bottom painted boat is 2 coats of epoxy barrier, each coat different color as a "wear gauge", then 2 coats of bottom paint ( additional at water line).

I was reading in the owners manual of my 2006 Catalina 250 Water Ballast ( yeah I have 2 near identical boats ) that the catalina has integral blister protection between gelcoat and fiber glass.

Questions:
Does anyone know if that was true for the 2001 model?
Any thoughts on if it is advisable to have an additional barrier coat applied, advisable, just a waste of money, or any reason it would be a bad idea?

I attached a picture of the letter in owner's manual.
 

Attachments

Jan 4, 2006
6,444
Hunter 310 West Vancouver, B.C.
Their process for a never before bottom painted boat is 2 coats of epoxy barrier,
Welcome to the site @Maddog1927.

Depends on the barrier coat. Mine was Interlux 2000E and required five coats as per the manufacturer. Epoxy barrier coats are not coloured. Nice puke colour. It's the antifouling coats that are coloured.

Research bottom coats and epoxy barrier coats on the archives of this site and bring yourself up to speed on the two subjects. This Driscoll does not sound good from what you've told us or maybe you misinterpreted their proposal.

Get it in writing for sure.
 
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Jan 1, 2006
7,040
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
So you have basically a gel coat bottom. You don’t need a barrier coat unless there is evidence of water intrusion into the laminate which is very unlikely for a boat that hasn’t been in the water.
Driscolls is prolly Rx’ing 2 layers of abalative bottom paint of different colors. This is standard practice for abalative bottom paints. If you are keeping the boat in the water you should do this. The alternative is a hard anti fouling bottom paint which is more favored by racers because it can be polished to an ultra smooth surface. But needs to be cleaned regularly.
 

dmax

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Jul 29, 2018
971
O'Day 35 Buzzards Bay
Since it has never been painted, before painting or barrier coating make sure the yard removes the wax from the gelcoat as it says in your manual - failure to do this will result in adhesion problems and having to redo the whole thing.
 
Jan 4, 2006
6,444
Hunter 310 West Vancouver, B.C.
So you have basically a gel coat bottom. You don’t need a barrier coat unless there is evidence of water intrusion into the laminate which is very unlikely for a boat that hasn’t been in the water.
I think you can safely say that there has never been a case of blistering where a FG boat hasn't been in water.

BUT what about when it IS put into water on a full time basis and (God forbid), does start to blister and needs remediation ?
 
Jan 4, 2006
6,444
Hunter 310 West Vancouver, B.C.
What if ...
Aye, and there lies the question :rolleyes: .

Is it better to have epoxied and never blistered or, never epoxied and blister like a witches arse ?

With apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
 
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Joe

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Jun 1, 2004
7,999
Catalina 27 Mission Bay, San Diego
Apply the barrier to Interlux specs, which is about thickness rather than number of coats. Here in Mission Bay, where I keep my boat at Marina Village, next to Driscoll, most of the boat owners use a Hard shell paint and hire a diver to wipe it down once a month. My diver charges $40 per cleaning for this service and it is an excellent investment. Besides giving me a condition report every month with the bill, the monthly service extends the time between haul outs significantly. As in every 4 to 6 years, instead of yearly like you'd need with the ablative paints. If you're pulling your boat out of the water on a regular basis, you'll want to go with an ablative paint. Modified epoxies (hard shell) paints are affected by sun and air such that their anti fouling properties get leached out by the weather. Ablatives work differently so are not susceptible to the exposure.

I have used Driscoll Mission Bay 4 or 5 times and have never been disappointed. They are pretty friendly to DIYers as long as you comply to their rules. Buying the paint from their chandlery is one.... but.... the person that runs it is very cool, very helpful and she only charges you for what you use.. so if you don't use a full can you can return it for credit. Same with the barrier coat.... Last time out, I didn't have the energy to paint the boat my self, so I contracted the yard to finish it while I worked on a couple other projects. Things went smooth... as they always do.