Cleaning the boot stripe

[Joel]

Hauled my 1987 H23 out for the season this week and as I suspected, the boot stripe on the port side rear quarter is all fouled. Next year I'll try to balance the boat more but that's a different venture.The boat has been pressure washed and the bottom for the most part held up real well.What do you all recommend for getting the rest of the hard crud off the boot stripe? This was the first year I had the boat in the water so I'm also looking for things to do different for next year. One of the recent posts in the photo forum appears to be be using bottom paint all the way up to the top of the boot stripe. Is this what most of y'all do? I had used a glossy enamel on the boot stripe this year which held up well all places except where the boat was listing to port all season.

 

[Jack]

Boot Stripe

I think you may want to raise the waterline. For some reason they all seem to rest in teh water above the factory line. I use FSR to remove stains. Works pretty well but I don't thinkit will remove the crust.

 

[Wanderer138]

Bottom paint above waterline

My H23 stays in fresh water all the time, and it has no boot topping. I just continue the bottom paint to about 3 inches above the waterline.After the pressure washing all I have to do is lightly sand with 600 grit and slap on the new paint. You should be able to do the same as long as you use an ablative bottom paint. I use VC17 (red) so I can get two coats on the bottom in a day. Red paint above the waterline really looks good when the boat is sitting in the slip.PeterH23 "Raven"

 

[Jon Bastien]

Boot stripe

On my H23, the boot stripe was 'tinted' into the gel coat- I would need to sand about 1/8' of gel coat out to get rid of the light blue portion. I was able to leave the top 2" of that boot stripe showing, and had about 1 1/2" of bottom paint above the waterline- plenty to prevent growth on the gel coat in a calm harbor. --Jon BastienH25 'Adagio'

 

[Bill Leathen]

Cleaning bootstipe

My boat has the boot stripe as part of the gel coat. At the end of the season, after I clean the boat, I usually use rubbing compound to clean the remaining crud off. Then I re-wax the area. On my boat the boot stripe actually goes under the water in the area of the transom. For some reason, this year the boat was especially clean when I pulled it. Also the zebra muscles are dying in my area of the Mississippi river (Wisconsin). No body knows why.