Why Acrylic Paint Instead of Marine Grade Paint
I visited your blog, and was surprised to see that you're using latex primer on your rudder, and "100% Acrylic" paint on top of that. House paint?
And you're using the same paint on the bottom?
With regard to the "topsides", you must have meant "deck". The "topsides" are the portion of the hull between the waterline and the gunnels. More house paint there, too?
What lead you to your paint choice, particularly for the bottom? I'm always learning new things about boat maintenance, but this has my head spinning.
First, thank you so much for your comment and visiting my blog. I really appreciate your question. Here is my answer:
Yes, all paint, deck, topsides, and bottom are 100 Acrylic house paint. Before applying Acrylic paint to the bottom, we applied three new barrier coats of two-part epoxy. The house paint covers the epoxy to keep the ultraviolet rays of the sun from damaging it.
This boat is going to be kept on a freshwater lake and when it is not in use, will be stored on a boat lift.
The formulations on Marine oil based paints have not changed in decades. All of the research and development dollars go into improving exterior house paints. That is where the money is. Profit from marine paint is extremely small compared to profit in house paints.
A couple of years ago, my wife and I painted the front entryway of our house. When we were finished I forgot to clean one of the expensive brushes I had purchased. Later when I found it, the paint had completely dried. I placed the brush into a container of water thinking the latex paint would dissolve over time. It never did and the water stayed clear for months. I tried hot water and soap, which also did not remove any of the dried paint.
I then began doing research and found an article written by a retired chemical engineer about using 100 percent acrylic paint on boats. Our boat project is a test to see how it holds up. We own several boats. We have used oil based paint on boat bottoms and we know it is a pain to touch up. The acrylic paint is easy to touch up.
After applying acrylic paint to the sides of our sailboat, I power washed the painted side at 2000 psi from three inches distance for several minutes. Nothing happened to the paint.
The same power wash test of the oil based painted surface easily removed the previous oil based finish enough to see a different color beneath it. The previous oil based finish had been on the boat for seven years, so sunlight may have taken a toll.
I have no idea how acrylic paint would hold up on a boat that sits in water year after year, but we'll see how it works for a boat that is in for the days in use and out of water when not in use.
The really good 100 percent acrylic exterior house paints are $40 to $55.00 per gallon. We could have purchased oil based enamels for $20 a gallon.
The reason marine paint is so expensive is because the volume of sales are low and competition is small.
Eventually, all toxic bottom paints will become much more expensive and many harbors will eventually band the use of them. The industry movement is toward paints that are more enviromentally friendly. My father's cancer may have been a result of being exposed to lead-based paints for years in his job.
Between 80 and 120 million gallons a day are drawn from our lake each day to provide drinking water for 450,000 people. I'm trying to do my part in keeping it safer and a little less toxic. I'm willing to spend some money and take a risk in order to let other boaters know if they can use 100 percent acrylic paint on their boats. If we don't try, we'll never know.
