I am in the process of stripping the bottom paint off of my trailer sailor hull (Oday 192, 1988) and was planning on applying a barrier coat. Scraping the older, blue bottom paint is quite easy and I expected to see white gel coat below. However, I have encountered this brown/tan mottled layer that is very smooth and harder than the blue bottom paint. But I also see white hull in some locations (pics attached). I do not know what this mottled layer is. Would a previous primer be so smooth and hard or would this be an actual barrier coat? I would like to figure out what it is in order to determine what type of layer I should put over it, or if I should strip this layer as well. Has anyone encountered such a layer? The PO is not available for info. Thanks, Robin
Does my hull have a barrier coat?
- Thread starter SurfaceStAug
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There was a time when people used an epoxy tar barrier coat. This has fallen out of favor. The color would be a dark brown or black. The tar had a tendency to dry out and get very hard after many years.
Take a rag with some acetone on it and rub the area. If it is a epoxy tar barrier coat some of the tar will rub off on to the rag.
Removing it would be a good idea. And you'll be thankful that your boat is only 19 feet. Although at some time in the process you'll swear it grew in length.
Take a rag with some acetone on it and rub the area. If it is a epoxy tar barrier coat some of the tar will rub off on to the rag.
Removing it would be a good idea. And you'll be thankful that your boat is only 19 feet. Although at some time in the process you'll swear it grew in length.
When we bought our H34 new in 1985 the dealer had a barrier coat applied. It is rather thin, but definitely brown. There have been the occasional blisters formed. Whenever I would find them I would clean them out dry them and fill with epoxy and bottom paint again. At the next haul the blister would come back in the same spot. So I finally gave up trying to fix them. The ones I left haven't gotten any worse than when they first showed up. Some are 20+ years old.
Thanks for the replies. I will do the acetone test to see, but it sounds like this was one of those early barrier coat attempts. It is super glossy in feel... too bad I can't rely on it. As the boat will be spending most of the time (80%?) on the trailer I am unsure what I will do for this season. I'll first strip all bottom paint to get a good look at everything. I appreciate the input.
I'm not understanding why you need a barrier coat on a boat that spends 80% of it's time on a trailer. It sounds like a lot of work for not so much gain. I would just sand it smooth and apply bottom paint. The bottom paint is optional if the boat isn't spending significant time in the water - at least a week at a time.
If it resides on a trailer most of the time, try to get back to a nice, smooth, shiny bottom and enjoy the new speed.
I like the sound of those solutions! What had me thinking about a barrier coat was considering I might leave it in a slip for a few months this summer instead of dealing with the up/down mast efforts. I also have a healthy dose of paranoia about water absorption/blisters, but I suppose even if that later presents itself then I can dry out over the winter and reassess.