Bottom paint inquiry

[william24424]

I have several layers of bottom paint building up, some has started to flake off. Kingman marine won't allow outside contractors to remove bottom paint, I understand this is a messy job, and sodablasting may create a mess. Kingman will sandblast, epoxy, and ablative paint 33' sailboat hull for $3000.oo This price seems high, their are no blisters on bottom, I'd prefer not to sandblast. Questions #1 Does this seem like an expensive job? #2 Is this necessary? #3 Should I take the boat to another yard that will sodablast or allow lic./outside contractors on their yard? Advice appreciated.

 

[Ron5064]

Bottom Paint

William, We keep Nauti Dreams, a Hunter 30, at a New York state marina, we can't let the "dust" blow and besides, you don't want to mess with other boats, so we used an orbital sander with a long vacuum hose connected to the discharge of the sander and a shop vac, no mess for us, the neighbors or the marina and we got the satisfaction of doing it ourselves.Fair and following windsRon

 

[Ed Schenck]

Not unreasonable.

The price seems a little high but it really is a big job. I do as Ron does in my marina. You do not mention if the marina will permit you to do your own work. Some marinas require that you skirt the boat and work under so nothing can "contaminate" the surrounding area. You might also ask for a price where they do not add a barrier coat. Personally if I went down to bare gelcoat I would want an epoxy barrier. In fact I did that myself that is how I know what the work is worth. But I used scrapers and then hand-sanded the residual on my H37C.

 

[Honeyman]

Depending on...

the amount of paint build up, type of paint, and condition of bottom under it, you SHOULD be able to get by with a good agressive sanding and re-paint. Sand/soda blasting down to original gelcoat is extreme in my opinion unless you are serious racers or need serious blister work. Pulling out in the next 10 days to sand and paint my 35.5 with 3 coats of Petit Trinidad ($200+/gal) as well as repaint bootstripe with polyurethane. Haul,labor,paint,lay days,and relaunch will be $2000-2200 max. Just something to compare with...

 

[Waffle]

The price is good!

I don't think you need ro do it! Do you have big blisters the size of silver dollars? Can you pop them and smell acid? If the anwser is no then your answer of do you need to do this is NO!If you going to do it why not do it youeself. Hire a kid to help you. Use a GREAT paint stripper (see link).Your boat looks like a classic, very very nice, but she doesn't look fast. Speed is not in the equation. I would sand the paint smooth and put one coat of a GREAT muli-season ablitive paint. It will wear off every year or two. Boats are for using not working on!Best Wishes, Wif

 

[Honeyman]

If you haul...

every year, that's really all you need. My boat will stay in water with bottom scrubbed/cleaned every 3-4 months by a diver or myself and my bottom job will last 3-5 years. I guess that is another way to compare.

 

[Nice N Easy]

Bottom job

If you decide to do a total strip on the bottom, be advised that the soda blasting is much less abrasive than sand blasting. Much easier on the gel coat.Also the soda just washes away with the first good rain.

 

[Fred]

I'm with the guys who said the price is

fair but you don't need it. Bottom paint is often a bit lumpy. Scrape and pick away where it looks flaky and be sure you get the loose stuff off. You can wet sand with 100 grit wet and dry paper to keep the dust down or do the sander with vacuum.Slap on some paint and go sailing. The fish don't care if your bottom is smooth, and you don't care what the fish think anyway.

 

[Tony Z]

My theory on bottom paint

By design, if falls off over time all by it's self.I just touch up the missing parts every season.I figure I do a complete redo about 6 every years or so.If you don't mind doing the work your self, There are still yards around that let you work the bottom yourself. As it's mostly labor,you will save a lot of money.

 

[higgs]

How important is that extra 1/4 knot?

That is really the question to ask yourself.

 

[MikeH]

No blister?

I agree with the majority that the price isn't bad for the entire job, but I'd recommend you wait until it's sandblasted/soda blasted to make the blister determination. I had my bottom soda blasted for about $30/ft and that uncovered (and popped) a fair amount of small blisters that were hidden by several coats of paint.I repaired the blisters, then barrier coated and VC-17'd the bottom myself. Painting time was just over 1.5 hours per foot. The paints totalled about $10/ft (3-coats barrier, 2-ablative).If your experience is similar to mine you're costs might be closer to $1200, and you'd have about 50 hours of hard labor.

 

[Bruce320]

Bottom strip, prep, and paint

Will:I went through the same thoughts as to what to do and who will do it last Fall when i took my Hunter 320 out for the winter, it had 6 years of buildup. We ended up having some great weekend weather after haulout last Fall and I decided to tackle the job myself. I went the same route as Ron and used an orbital sander with vacuum hose attached to a shop vac. Most yards will not allow sanding without dust capture and trying to use the filter on a typical orbital sander will not work, it fills in less than a couple of minutes, particularly if you use a medium grit paper. I found a couple of plumbing fittings that I could modify with a rotozip to make the necessary grooves for twist-lock onto my orbital and picked up another piece of vacuum hose so I had about 8-10' of slack and went to town on the bottom. It took about 4 days total and some sore shoulders at the end of the day but I got it down to bare gelcoat. It looks great, no blisters and I had it done before snowfall. It's worth trying yourself before you shell out $3000. Chances are you will use better paint than the yard also but make sure you get all the wax off the bottom, that's why mine peeled in the first place, they never prepped it properly when it was orignally commissioned.

 

[steve rainey]

bottom paint

My 2 cents is this. When I bought mine I put on 3 coats thinking I was doing a great job. I've regretted it ever since. As the first coat is failing and now flaking. As the paint is designed to ware off, what I did is get the bottom scraped and sanded. Put on one coat thin! Haul out every 6 months pressure wash, check and fix any blisters and spot paint. By keeping a thin coat on, its less work, cheaper and it works better. The haul out times are less. Also I was reading that keeping the bottom clean, smooth after applying the paint with a roller, go over the paint with a rubber squegie to smooth it. I tried it and like the results.. ya I know I can't spell squegie, but it sounds right...