Bottoming out

[s sauer]

Racing Paint

I suppose I could have titled this 'What not to Use'. However, I've always used Baltoplate vinyl Racing Paint ever since the TBT paints were outlawed. Baltoplate can be applied thin with a West System foam roller and wetsanded to extreme smoothness, so it is an excelent racing paint. You do get slime growth after a couple weeks, but never actual vegetation or barnacles, at least not in our brackish end of the Chesapeake. It is a major effort every year wetsanding before (reduces build-up) and after applying the paint and I would never recomend it to anyone but a serious racer.We no longer race much but I don't even want to think about scraping it off to apply another type since almost nothing is compatible with vinyl.

 

[s sauer]

Racing Paint

I suppose I could have titled this 'What not to Use'. However, I've always used Baltoplate vinyl Racing Paint ever since the TBT paints were outlawed. Baltoplate can be applied thin with a West System foam roller and wetsanded to extreme smoothness, so it is an excelent racing paint. You do get slime growth after a couple weeks, but never actual vegetation or barnacles, at least not in our brackish end of the Chesapeake. It is a major effort every year wetsanding before (reduces build-up) and after applying the paint and I would never recomend it to anyone but a serious racer.We no longer race much but I don't even want to think about scraping it off to apply another type since almost nothing is compatible with vinyl.

 

[Bob]

ProLine

I've been using ProLine (now a product of Sherwin Williams) for over 12 years. Usually get 3-4 years per bottom job (boat is only out during that time). This is hard, vinyl paint which can be sanded for racing. Works well in So. Cal.

 

[Bob]

ProLine

I've been using ProLine (now a product of Sherwin Williams) for over 12 years. Usually get 3-4 years per bottom job (boat is only out during that time). This is hard, vinyl paint which can be sanded for racing. Works well in So. Cal.

 

[Michael]

Need someones advice!

I have bought my first boat last year, a 1973 22 O'day! It has a trailer! I plan on keeping it on the trailer when not in use. The previous owner never kept the boat on the trailer! It has bottom paint and the paint seems to be in realy good shape. No blisters ect,ect. Should I continue using bottom paint since it has this application? Any suggestions would be great! Thanks! Michael mjsinvest@earthlink.net

 

[Michael]

Need someones advice!

I have bought my first boat last year, a 1973 22 O'day! It has a trailer! I plan on keeping it on the trailer when not in use. The previous owner never kept the boat on the trailer! It has bottom paint and the paint seems to be in realy good shape. No blisters ect,ect. Should I continue using bottom paint since it has this application? Any suggestions would be great! Thanks! Michael mjsinvest@earthlink.net

 

[Fred Ficarra]

Michael, that's an easy one.

Do NOTHING except use your boat. You'll be able to tell if action is required.

 

[Fred Ficarra]

Michael, that's an easy one.

Do NOTHING except use your boat. You'll be able to tell if action is required.

 

[Richard Bonnie]

Copper paint for your bottom

Our boat stays on a mooring for 4 months in the summer in a heavy fouling area. For the first 10 years I painted on a biocide-based eroding bottom paint from Blakes each season.Blue splodges in the bath and on the towels were an unwelcome indication of spring.I cleaned the whole lot off after 10 years. The hull was in as-new condition, a testament to Macgregors quality fibreglass.I have replaced the paint with copper powder mixed paint - "Copperbot" and the like. There are water based and epoxy based versions, both seem equally good.Each year, we just pressure-wash the hull on lift out to clean off the slime and stains and then drop the boat in next spring, no preparation, cleaning or repainting. I can really recommend it.

 

[Kurt]

Environmentally sound paints

To the guy who thinks its OK to buy illegal paint in Mexico. There is a good reason that paints containing TBT (and other compounds) have been outlawed. It's not just that some fish's liver was affected. The toxins affect algae and small invertebrates, especially near marinas, then creep up the food chain into bigger invertebrates (like shrimp and crabs), fish, humans, and marine mammals. Do a little research into it and you'll see why these compounds have been outlawed. Sure, it's a little more work to change to ablative paints, but they are safer and the marine world isn't just out there as our garbage dump, we need to be responsible for how our pastime affects the water. Oh, and just so you know, it's illegal to buy those paints in Mexico and bring them back to the US. Cheers and Fair Winds!!

 

[Marc14857]

Cnsider CPP Plus From West Marine

I've used CPP plus from West Marine for the past two years. Our Hunter 356 is in the water here in the Northeast from May through November and when she is pulled the bottom looks great. It is an ablative paint but it does not say that it is a multi season paint. I usually put on two coats at the start of each season.When we pulled the boat last fall the bottom looked brand new. A friend advised me not to bottom paint this year because it didn't look like the boat needed new paint. I am not sure that I would go that far. In any event at $90 per gallon you can't go wrong.

 

[sgordon]

Bottom Paint

Our boat (Ericson 34) is in the water from April to October. We use VC-17 (about 3 quarts per year). It works well, is easy to apply with a roller, and best of all, does not require sanding.

 

[Tim Cook]

What's the point?

I am confused about bottom paint. I get the bottom of my boat cleaned every 3 weeks or so in the summer (a little less in the winter) If the bottom paint works why does it have to be cleaned all the time? If I have it cleaned all the time why do I need bottom paint? Does cleaning wear away the paint? My intuition says the hell with repainting when the time comes, just keep up the cleaning regime. I'm sure there are lots of reasons why this seemingly logical approach won't work, I can't wait to hear them!

 

[Pete]

For Tim Cook

You'll know the answer to question, "Why paint the bottom," when the top speed or rpms your boat can do drop in half. You'll know when the boat can't get out of it's own way due to a fouled bottom. If you were really interested, all you need do is read something, anything, about bottom paint. Ablatives/sloughing paints are supposed to wear away until nothing is left. Hard or modified epoxy paints leech cuprous oxide out of the matrix of the paint until all is left is the dead matrix. That's the short answer. You are going to find out the long answer when you begin scraping barnacles and other hard growth off your hull when whatever you have on there now ends its useful life.

 

[reidcam@telusplanet.net/]

Jotum Quantum 2000

We have used Jotun Quantum 2000 for the second year and like it because it has a 60 month out of the water life as we haul the boat in Trinidad for 6 month each summer. We don't have any growth in any harbor or ancorage. About $200 a gallon and 1 1/2 gallons do the boat. Thank care, fair winds; Changes in Latitude. Canada.

 

[Tim Cook]

Thanks Pete

Gosh Pete, from the tone of your reply it sounds as though my thoughts ticked you off! As far as being interested if I wasn't I wouldn't have mooted the point. would I? I am in fact genuinely interest in the subject and therefore would like to know, for example, If I have the bottom cleaned every 3 weeks or so will all these dreadful barnacles and fouling that you mention have time to establish themselves? If the answer is yes then bottom paint obviously doesn't work. (yes I know this is an absurd statement). However can't you see the obvious question i.e. either clean or paint, why both? I would love an objective answer.

 

[Howard9071]

bottom paint

Tim.i did an experiment a few years ago. had the bottom repainted in the spring and didnt have any growth or barnicles all summer and was clean up to the middle of the next summer. i started noticing growth and was having to clean every couple of weeks. i kept doing this until the end of the next summer. the growth got heaver between cleaning and the barnicles got larger and harder to remove. much more effort to get a clean hull. i had the bottom done again this year and had a great summer with little cleaning. i think for me, i leave my boat in all year, i will have it done every two years. Just my experiences.Howard

 

[Pete]

For Tim Cook, Pt II

This is as objective as I can make it: Barnacles, and other marine growth, are affected by the salinity of the water you are in, the temperature of the water, how you use your boat and a million other "facts" that are probably unknowable. Whether they attach themselves to your boat or not also depends on what kind of bottom paint you used, how well it was applied, and the "useful" life of the toxin in that paint. IMHO, I cannot imagine a boat painted with a brand name bottom paint, applied correctly and within it's useful lifespan (i.e., don't expect an "annual" bottom paint to last multi-seasons,or a multi-season paint to last forever, etc.)to need cleaning every 3 weeks. If your boat really does require cleaning that often (and you haven't said what the condition of the bottom is after 3 weeks in the drink...)something is clearly wrong. "Good" quality bottom paints work very well if applied correctly and within their "normal" lifespans. My advice to you is to clean off whatever you have on there now, put on a good quality paint and then take a look at the bottom yourself before having it cleaned every few weeks. Remember: bottom paint wears out -- it's supposed to -- so replace it at whatever the necessary interval is. If you get barnacles on good paint every few weeks, you are sailing in a sci-fi movie set....

 

[Michael Cotton]

Petit Vivid

Does anyone have experience with Petit Vivid paint?

 

[Peter]

interlux vs. ultima sr

It's nearing time to paint the bottom, and I'm considering switching paints. Looking at either the Ultima SR or Interlux Extra. Reviewing the post, Ultima SR is recommended a few times but nothing for the Extra. Anybody have knowledge of the the Interlux? Also, interested in feelings on hard paint vs. copolymer (Ultima or Extra). I don't mind the hard paint if scrubbing the bottom gives me more time between repainting, but ablative paints are nice not having to sand it all off when it comes time to repaint. Heavy fouling area, Broad Bay, southern Chesapeake.