BOTTOM PAINT AND CLEANING

[BILL RAINES]

I may purchase an older 25' oday, my wife has fallen in love with the boat so i have little choice in the matter. It is a one owner boat and very well mantained except it has been in salt water for at least 2 years and has a lot of growth on the bottom. It will need to be cleaned and repainted, any advise on how to proceed will be much appreciated. Thankyou for all advise and sugestions. bill

 

[Kevin]

depends on the paint

Hi Bill,It depends on what kind of paint the bottom has on it now. You should ask the current owner before you purchase the boat. If the bottom is in good shape with no blisters, it should be fairly simple to clean and re-apply what's on it now. However, some types of bottom paint are not compatible with others, so worst case scenario is that you must sand blast the hull, fair and repaint with the paint of your choice. I got a quote of 50$ per foot to do this at a boat shop here in Minnesota. If you can get by with cleaning and light sanding, its a DIY project. The West Marine catalog has some good information on bottom painting.

 

[Warren]

Hull cleaning

Try to avoid high pressure cleaning, as it can get under the gel coat. I have found that "Simple Green" and a good scraper will do the job (add elbo grease!).After you get the initial job done, yearly maintance will be easier. I suggest you use the type of bottom paint that "wears off" its much eaiser to clean up at seasons end and repaint in the Spring. (See West Marine)

 

[Larry14221]

Simple Green?

Do I understand correctly? Simple Green can remove the ablative anti-fouling paint from the hull? Please confirm. Sounds great!

 

[bill]

kevin and warren thankyou

thankyou for your kind response to my inquiry about the rehabilitation of the bottom to an oday. We have spent nearyly 5 years searching for the boat most suited to our needs and our location. Very early on we began to search the internet, we were impressed with the loyalty and helpfullness of oday owners. We know othere brands have loyalists as well, but no other web site has the loyalty of oday. So many makes of sailboats have sold so many more, and are still in business, yet they do not have the loyal following. It is people like you who have convinced us the oday is the best buy in a used sailboat. We will purchase this boat even though it will cost us more than some other brands, because we know we are getting a quality boat. Thankyou again for all of your help. We are looking forward your and othere oday owners to our future questions. By the way, i am dislexick, please dissregard my spelling errors. Bill