Fastest bottom paint

[william24424]

What is the fastest bottom paint? My boat is sailed in New England waters, it has an ablative coat, new bottom around 3 years ago. Is it worth it to go hard bottom paint? What is the best ablative coat for racing? The boat is hauled each fall and launched each spring.

 

[tommays]

Its tough to call the fast saltwater stuff like Baltoplate antifouling as it requires and endless cleaning program and putting it on smooth enough to be fast is also really labor intensive

 

[Benny17441]

The faster the more maintenance which kind of defeats the purpose.

 

[JoyRide28]

VC 17 is fast. I use it in freshwater. The copper additive is highly toxic to sea life (and to you - wear a full respirator mask!). Not sure how it would do in a saltwater environment...

 

[Ross]

Fastest would be clean gelcoat! Haul the boat after every race clean and polish the bottom. Don't allow the boat to sit idle in the water between race days. What is the most practical, That is every manufacturers dream.

 

[Maine Sail]

What is the fastest bottom paint? My boat is sailed in New England waters, it has an ablative coat, new bottom around 3 years ago. Is it worth it to go hard bottom paint? What is the best ablative coat for racing? The boat is hauled each fall and launched each spring.

The one that retards growth & slime the best for your waters.

It is always amusing to me, the "fastest bottom paint" questions. Sure every little bit makes a difference, but I suspect, seeing as none of us are racing in the America's cup, that focusing on other skills that can make the boat go faster will be more beneficial than which paint, assuming the "fastest" and the next level down are both in good shape.

Funny story... We had a very, very competitive multi-day one design J-24 regatta up here last fall. The best race crews hauled their boats here from all over the country.

Who won over the multi-day event? A local mooring sailed boat, with, you guessed it, bottom paint... It beat lots of other "trailer baby" boats with gelcoat and no paint. It all came down to sailing skills, not who had the newest and best sails, lightest and least stretchy running rigging or fastest paint. The boat that won simply had good consistent sailing...

What I took away.... Know and focus on your local waters, currents, winds, have a good tactician and proper sail trim, practice your sets and tacks and starts and your bottom paint won't matter much even when competing against "trailer babies"...

Also there is a lot to be said for an ablative over hard paint, cost wise, over the long haul. Hard paint will eventually need to be stripped and a full bottom job done. Most hard paints killed when hauled for the winter and a fresh coat is needed each spring thus creating build up. Most multi-season co-polymer ablatives are haul & re-launch capable and with proper care the bottom can remain smooth for a very, very long time without needed to address lifting and flaking chunks of paint..

Just my .02...

 

[RichH]

Baltoplate is by far the fastest if applied 'as smooth as a babies butt' ... and kept that way by wiping or using a squeegee on a long pole, etc. It will keep hard growth under control but does attract 'slime'.

Next would be Vc17 'offshore' but its not as hard as Baltoplate but comes 'close'.

Any bottom paint containing 'teflon' will be much faster than bare gelcoat because of extremely low coefficient of friction of PTFE and related 'teflonics'.

 

[s sauer]

Baltoplate

Baltoplate is a hard vinyl racing paint that can be wet sanded to whatever level you want for your level of competition. However, you need to start with a smooth bottom with hull to keel joint faired in and the hull itself 'long boarded'.
Once you start down the Baltoplate road, you are kind of committed to a very labor intensive installation and wet sanding every season you race. I happen to feel it was worthwhile in the light air of the northern Chesapeake Bay IF you are a serious racer. I used to prep the boat each spring by wet sanding the previous year's coat with 220 wet-or-dry paper before applying the fresh Baltoplate with a foam roller and then wet sanding, 1st with 240 wet-or-dry, then with 320 wet-or-dry.. you cango further but it isn't necesary. You should use a scrubber to clean off the slime before a race. Yes you need decent sails and yes you need to understand sail trim and especially in the Chesapeake, you need to understand local tides and currents. A perfect bottom job leaves you one less excuse to loose.
But man is it a lot of work!

 

[Ross]

Re: Baltoplate

Up at the end where I sail we have five rivers entering the bay with the ebb and flood and wind not often going my way. The water can be as confused as anywhere. If you don't understand all of those factors then (your a**)the condiition of your bottom won't matter very much/

 

[william24424]

Helpful input, so now I'm thinking less labor below and more attention to trim & tactics. Which brings me back to best ablative paint for racing, anyone try Micron 66? Interlux? Pettit? or any other recommendations?

 

[Prime Time]

Vivid

Helpful input, so now I'm thinking less labor below and more attention to trim & tactics. Which brings me back to best ablative paint for racing, anyone try Micron 66? Interlux? Pettit? or any other recommendations?

Vivid is a hard ablative that can be wet sanded. It has been rated fairly well in practical sailor. It will require having you bottom cleaned every couple of weeks. If you don't regularly go under and clean, any racing paint will foul with all types of growth.

We used it on my boat and a friends that we do the weds night thing in PHRF. We've had very good results. Put on at least 3 coats rolling and tipping if you are going to wet sand. Fair what you need to. Prep with sanding with 80-100 grit.

 

[Joe]

Helpful input, so now I'm thinking less labor below and more attention to trim & tactics. Which brings me back to best ablative paint for racing, anyone try Micron 66? Interlux? Pettit? or any other recommendations?

You need to have a faired bottom.... otherwise it doesn't make a lot of difference. I leave it to you to find your own instructional video on how to properly fair the bottom of your boat.

After you have the bottom faired and you've picked out a paint and applied it... your maintenance plan will determine everything.

What that means is this: have the diver wipe the bottom before every race!

If you leave th boat in the water, you can't just put some paint on the bottom and expect the boat to be fast all season... no matter what kind you use. You need to check it before every race... so get your mask and snorkel and a piece of carpet and take care of business.

 

[JoyRide28]

Okay guys, one more comment.... I believe that the fastest surface through the water (or any 'fluid') will not be smooth and shiny. It will be slightly rough - like with 1000 grit wet and dry. The reason is that a shiny (waxed) hull creates more friction because the water cannot stick to it. When the surface is *slightly* (and correctly) porous it allows a very thin (ideally one molecule) layer of water to stick to the hull and therefore the contact made while underway is 'water on water' which has very very low friction... I have seen the same principle used on sails (which is NOT class legal); both with noticeable results... That said, I do agree that knowledge of sail trim, tactics and local conditions probably trumps bottom paint in winning races. That and some luck... P

 

[Ducati]

Baltoplate Is Fastest

Its tough to call the fast saltwater stuff like Baltoplate antifouling as it requires and endless cleaning program and putting it on smooth enough to be fast is also really labor intensive

I've used both VC17 (less work) and now Baltoplate (lots a work). If you have the time, are fussy about things and love working on your boat, use Baltoplate otherwise use VC is the way to go.

Pray for spring

 

[Prime Time]

Boundary Layer

Okay guys, one more comment.... I believe that the fastest surface through the water (or any 'fluid') will not be smooth and shiny. It will be slightly rough - like with 1000 grit wet and dry. The reason is that a shiny (waxed) hull creates more friction because the water cannot stick to it. When the surface is *slightly* (and correctly) porous it allows a very thin (ideally one molecule) layer of water to stick to the hull and therefore the contact made while underway is 'water on water' which has very very low friction... I have seen the same principle used on sails (which is NOT class legal); both with noticeable results... That said, I do agree that knowledge of sail trim, tactics and local conditions probably trumps bottom paint in winning races. That and some luck... P

In fluid dynamics speak, you are talking about boundary layer phenomena. The layer closest to a surface exposed to flow has no motion. But that would only exist in laminar flow. I've done some research in this field. Its arguable that the flow over the entire hull is laminar. Remember the bumps that Conner applied to the hull for this purpose?

 

[RichH]

Definitely the development of an intact and extremely thin hydrodynamic boundary layer is important to minimize skin friction (parasitic drag). Such will depend on the absolute smoothness of all leading edges and the smoothness of the hull and rudder ... as Joe stated a careful 'fairing job' on the hull is the 'first' step to insure hull smoothness, followed by NOT using a roller to do a 'slop' bottompaint job. Interestingly, the "fat-assed" newer designs will also better 'hold' that laminar flow than the older style more symmetric (pinched stern) hull which will easily cause the boundary layer to become turbulent/separated near the stern.

VC can be 'burnished', using heavy clay-filled 'shiny magazine paper' to 'smear' the coating to a very fine polished finish and one that will fill small irregularities in the surface ... and since you dont 'remove' much by the sanding/polishing process ... its more economical than Baltoplate, and 'almost' as fast.
Baltoplate is the proven 'fastest' but as like any fine 'racing bottom' it has to be applied and sanded to absolute perfection ... and must be constantly wiped down before racing.

So too, you can put a high polish on the exposed topside and do a final prep by using Teflon laden 'speed waxes' ... Holly Speed Wax is long lasting too. That will add extra 'slippey-ness' to the heeled-over immersed topsides.

Sailboat racing is simply a 'game of inches' ... and every 'inch' (by tactics, boat handling, boat speed/hull prep) you save when on the racecourse will enhance your performance and placement ranking.

 

[LloydB]

When I read "proven fastest" I usually expect documented numbers and conditions or standard conditions and I haven't noticed such in this thread yet. If speed wax helps the ~15% of top side go faster when heeled why not wax the whole thing, or bottom paint the whole thing? Given the same prepeartion and hull what would be the difference between the best paint and the average lower brands if in a straight line comparison over three miles?

 

[Sailm8]

Why not ask the owner of the boat that finishes ahead of you?