Bottom paint
Use an abolative paint so you won't have to sand it to repaint latter. VC 17 is an abolative, however it is an expensive abolative and does not have much copper in it. There are much better paints out there thatwill reduce fouling better. The VC 17 being a hard abolative makes it a faster paint for the racers, but requires the bottom to be cleaned more offten. All good racers clean their bottoms befroe a race. Make sure the paint is of one of the types that won't over dry. They will say they are multi seasonal or that they are for trailable boats. Many bottom paints can over dry. When they over dry they no longer leach their toxins so don't reduce marine growth. Non abolative paints have to be sanded before new paint can be applied. With bottom paints this is not a job that you want to do. This is because the dust will be full of poisens. With an abolative a good pressue wash, let dry and apply a new coat is all that is usually required. Yes the first time you put an abolative paint on you will need more coats than with the older paints, but just rememeber no sanding later. Abolative paints have biocydes in them like the older paints, but also allow a small amount to sluff off while you are under way, sort of self cleaning. Harder abolative paints are used by racers because they want a harder faster finish on their bottoms. An abolative paint for a runabout would be even harder, as if a soft abolative paint was on their boat the high speed motion through the water would remove the paint too fast. Our boats are slow, so a softer paint is required. Get down to where you will be sailing and find out what paints others use there. No need to spend extra maoney on a paint that would be a minimum in say south florida, if you are keeping your boat in a northern lake. However more biocydes usually mean a cleaner bottom. There are even some paints out there that have biocydes especially blended to reduce that green slime that boats get in lakes. Of corse they cost more.