abladive paint

[david king]

I´d like some information on the care of ablative paint. The bottom of my h26 was painted over a year ago with two coats of Hemple ablative paint. It is just now starting to show signs of a bit of fuzz. Eventually, I probably should scrub the bottom. Question. How much scrubbing is too much? I don´t want to scrub all the paint off. I´d like to get two years from this bottom job if possible. The boat is in the water all the time here in Puerto Vallarta. I sail it an average of once a week for four or five hours. Maybe using it is better than scrubbing? Comments? David King, ¨Molly¨

 

[Mark Johnson]

Poor results with Ablative paint....

I'm not quite sure why, but I believe that sailboats are not fast enough to take off that "top layer" of bottom paint and expose fresh paint. If you are going to scub the bottom on a regular basis, I would highly advise against ablative paints. My opinion, but mine didn't hold up well.

 

[Terry]

Hi David, I put three coats of ablative...

on our P42 last July. During the winter months a light coat of marine growth appeared from lack of use. Last month when I finished my first cruise of the season the growth was gone. I expect to get three seasons plus from the WM ablative that I used. So far I'm satisfied.Terry

 

[Bill O'Donovan]

Two coats of ablative

And a diver every 30 days doesn't do any damage in terms of taking too much paint off. They likely developed the stuff with the knowledge that anyone smart enough to spend the extra money on ablative will be cleaning the boat regularly, so it would have been counter-productive to make it too easy to wash off. Do it.