Bottom Paint and Dive Services

[Rick D]

Sometimes I wonder if most of us in SoCal have been victim of a large con. Most of us, by my seat-of-the-pants measure, use a hard bottom paint. The majority of those, by the same measure, use a dive service. The most popular paint appears to be Trinidad. I typically get four years between haul outs, altho with the evolution of toxic mixes, the dive service has to increase in frequency sooner as the paint ages. So, here is my question: I wonder if we are just trading dollars compared to using an ablative? The dollar math goes something like this: for my 40', haul and paint two coats, three at the water line and leading edges of the keel and rudder = $2400 / 4 years = $600 per year. Dive service $50 per month X 12 months = $600. So, the monthly cost is about $100. It seems you guys in the more south eastern latitudes are getting about two years out of your bottoms which would equate to about a break-even comparison. Do you agree? Every month after that would be money in the bank. However, you don't get build-up, which is an advantage I think, altho the build up of epoxy may be a plus as it relates to blistering resistance. And, what about a hull scrub? Don't you have to have a dive service to scrub your prop and shaft and change zincs anyway? This is probably an academic question since I doubt most of us would change what works for us regardless. But, it becomes increasingly important as we are legislated away from copper based paints. Just curious what your take is on the matter. Rick D.

 

[Terry Cox]

Hi Rick, our cooler PNW waters appear to favor us...

I installed three coats of WM ablative when we purchased our boat in 2002. I redid the hull with another three coats of WM ablative in 2004. Each off year I use a volunteer diver to check things out and install new zincs. He just finished checking our hull Last weekend, scraped a thin layer of mussels from the keel and three barnacles from the prop. Other than that just a fine fuzz that will come off once underway. Pretty good stuff IMHO.Terry

 

[Patrick S/V Shangra-La]

Ablative pain and dive service

I use a dive service to keep an eye on the bottom to clean my prop and most importently to change my zink just to make sure I protect my running gear from electrolosis. My bottom pain is blue with red under it when he sees red its getting close to time to repaint.

 

[Ernie14812]

WOW $100 a MONTH!

That is 20% of my TOTAL monthly cost.I have a red hard coat covered with ablative blue. Repaint every other year or so if I can see red starting to show. Once a summer I snorkel to check the zincs and scrape the prop clean. Total cost $50 a year ($100/2) Did I mention that the bottom is only wet 6 months a year, unless it’s raining? At $50 a month, I would buy dive equipment and do my own scraping

 

[Brian D]

That's what I do...

I no longer use a dive service. I dive on my own boat. I got tired of they saying they did something and it really wasn't done. An beside, I can inspect my hull myself and keep tabs of what is happening underwater. I need a bottom paint so that will be about a grand in the boat yard. We can't do our own work in this boat yard.

 

[EatDrinkHealthy]

Bottom

Get a galvanic isolator. You don't need to worry about zinc again. I have one for many years. The zinc stays.http://www.yandina.com/galvanicIsolator.htmAnd you can scrub the bottom from the dock or deckhttp://www.marinestore.com/DriDiver.html?cart=32880721681162447I like to find a way to eliminate the problem rather than live with it.

 

[MoonSailer]

ABLATIVE FOR OVER 3 YEARS

I last had our boat painted near Christmas 2004. When I dovelast fall to do a sponge scrub all looked well. I will haul and paint sometime this spring. Part of the beauty of ablatives is that they rarely require sanding. Just a pressure was and a good srub before rolling on new paint. There is no advantage in using ahard paint when the boat is left inthe water. Remember too that the copper leaches out of hard paint leaving paint tobe sanded off. The ablatives wear off the outer surface revealing fresh copper.

 

[Benny17441]

Rick your pretty much on the money with the

exception that I get three years out of the ablative paint and our diver somehow squeezes 14 months into a year. For a 32' boat our monthly cost for bottom maintenance averages around $80.

 

[Landsend]

Rick, you're right... Diver and expensive bottom paint

This is the cost of boating in warm water with environmentally correct bottom paints.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Two or three years with Trinidad

and a diver once every three months for about $75 a pop.Oh, and we USE the boat alot, which helps. Marina Queens will grow stuff on the bottom to beat the band.

 

[ITMaster]

Like Brian, I dive mine

and know what condition the boat is in. Rick, my buddie in Oceanside uses one of those boat bath gizmoes. I think he gets a good four to five years between painting. He sails his boat a lot, but is a firm believer in that boat bath thingy. I guess you put chlorine or something in it to keep the buggies from growing and wanting to take up residency on the bottom of your boat. He is a race junkie and is pretty anal about having any kind of drag on the boat and swears by the little bath tub. Maybe that could extend your time between paintings. We use the Pettit Trinidad here in the Chesapeake Bay, I use a hard one instead of the ablative since I dive the boat regularly and put a scrub pad on it and it would be senseless for me to be cleaning an ablative paint.My next bottom paint will be changed over to Awl Grip Awl Star Gold Label Antifouling BP 502. It is a self polishing, antifouling Deep Blue paint that I have seen a friend use on his boat and he gets really good results with it. I have spoken with some others about it and they have found that by mixing this with epoxy, that it will last a long time and not wear off as easy, so I will more than likely be giving this a try next paint job. BTW, any diver in my area would charge me $90 per month from April until about late November for a LWL of 32.5'

 

[Joe]

dive service in san diego

wow... some of you guys pay a lot for divers.I have used a diver for the past five years that was recommended to me by marina management after the previous guy flaked... Marty's Marine Service just recently raised his rate to $1.20 a foot from a buck. That's 32.40 for a 27 footer, and he's very, very reliable. I dive on the bottom twice a year for my own inspection, but no more cleaning for me....it's cheaper to hire a diver. A good dive service every 3-4 weeks will extend the time between bottom paintings by wiping down rather than scrubbing the surface. My racing buddy has his boat's ablative painted bottom wiped down with a sponge every two weeks. He puts maybe 7 or 8 coats on when he hauls out every two years.I use hard shell, the current set of coats have lasted 5 years because of the good diver maintenance with regular wiping down........NO SCRUBBING!!!

 

[Calif. Ted]

Boat Baths used to be real popular

out here too, I think now if ANYONE with a badge and gun sees you pouring chlorine into a boat bath they are allowed to shoot first and holler stop second.