How Long Do You Go Between Haulouts?

sailingdog · Oct 28, 2008

I think a lot of it depends on how much maintenance requires you to haul the boat. One of my friends hauls her boat only every three or four years down in the Caribbean. She replaces/inspects the zincs, scrubs the hull and lubricates the seacocks using a hookah outfit. She doesn't need to paint every year or every other year because of the bottom paint she's using, and is currently going on 15 years with it.

The main reasons to haul a boat are bottom painting and maintenance on thru-hulls, seacocks, cutless bearings, stuffing boxes, the prop, the prop shaft or the rudder.

On the other hand, I haul my boat every winter, since that's pretty much a necessity up in New England.

I don't paint my boat every year...in fact, all I did this season, once hauling the boat out was just to pressure wash it... But I'm using the same bottom paint she is.

My boat doesn't have a cutless bearing, stuffing box or prop shaft, since it is powered by an outboard, and there are no zincs on the boat other than what is on the outboard itself. The outboard doesn't sit in the water unless I'm using it...so that zinc is hardly used. I do have to maintain and inspect the through-hulls on my boat, but there are only two of them...so it is a rather easy task.

Ross · Oct 28, 2008

We haul out before the ice each year and tend to what ever needs attention below the WL. Go back in in April.

ITMaster · Oct 29, 2008

I'm in the lower Chesapeake Bay

I have left the boat in for two years and that seems to be the limit. Sailingdog, what kind of bottom paint do you and she use? Is it a soft or hard paint? If you dive it regular, then my understanding is that a soft paint will get worn off pretty quick from the diving and cleaning of it. I like the idea of putting a paint on and having it last for many years like 4 or 5 or maybe even 6.

sailingdog · Oct 29, 2008

ITM-

It is a hard epoxy/copper paint and I don't do anything to it during the season... My boat was in from mid-May to mid-October and all I had on the bottom when I hauled it was slime.

A bit of powerwashing and even that was gone.

The name of the paint is CopperCoat, and it isn't available in the USA as of yet. I had to order it from the UK and have it shipped air freight. Their website is www.coppercoat.co.uk and has more information there. I've got two friends using it, one is on year eight and the other on year 15. It was rather expensive to purchase, more so than regular bottom paint, but I look at it as a long term investment.

If I get five years out of it, I'll be about even with the cost of using a decent ablative, but will have had more time to enjoy the boat and spent less time painting it. If I get the manufacturer's ten years out of it—I'll be very happy... and if I get the fifteen my friend has gotten from it—it'll more than have paid for itself in time and effort saved.

Unlike most hard epoxy paints, this one doesn't get deactivated if you haul the boat out... to prep the boat for splashing this year, I did absolutely nothing...

The reason it doesn't get deactivated it that it doesn't use a copper-based biocide in the paint film. It uses actual metallic copper, in the form of a very fine powder that is added to the epoxy carrier. When it dries, it is supposed to be about 85% copper by volume.

At the beginning of last season, I had the boat bottom soda blasted down to gelcoat, barrier coated the hulls with Interprotect 2000E, and then applied the CopperCoat.

The only place I had any real problems is the rudder, but that is because I didn't really give it the proper number of coats and the mix was a bit off, since my assistant accidentally lost some of the copper powder that t was supposed to be in the paint. It had some growth on it...but nothing at all on the hulls, and pressure washing took care of the growth on the rudder and the slime on the hulls. Of course, if had scrubbed the rudder every other week, I wouldn't have even had any growth on it to deal with either...

If you have any questions, let me know.

Dan Johnson · Oct 29, 2008

Joe...

Previous owner did one winter in the water in Middle River. I bought the boat the next fall and hauled it out that winter. Bottom paint was Micron CSC and really did need recoating that next spring. I've hauled out each winter for the past three. It gives me the time to get any serious below-water project done if needed instead of waiting another season. I found I also need to address the steel keel rust each spring or it gets out-of-hand.

Our club marina just allowed in-water wintering with ice eaters. As we are fresh water where we are, a particularly harsh winter will overwhelm the ice eater fans and lock the boats into a hard ice grip. My partner in the 70's wintered us in the water off the Patapsco the year the Bay froze solid. Even with fans and a bubbler system we had ice damage into the glass along the waterline. I don't need that kinda headache.

Bill Roosa · Oct 29, 2008

Every 3 years if needed

I live aboard in the lower Northern Cheasepeak bay and only haul out to paint the bottom. You get more sailing in that way you know!!!:dance:
I have gone 3 years without a haulout but am averaging 2. Zincs are replaced in the water BTW.

Snotter · Oct 29, 2008

In northern Alabama, pulling the hull briefly

for painting every 3 years or so, provided there is no other compelling reason to pull it, seems to be the norm. Many of the big boats hire a diver once a month in the summer months to clean the bottoms, making the need for bottom paint almost unnecessary. Most of the yards here, when doing a bottom job, put enough coats on to go just shy of 3 years.

ITMaster · Oct 29, 2008

Thanks Sailingdog

Sounds like something that I'll be checking out. Given the cost of haul out, powerwash, blocking, time to sand down, repaint, resplash and go through that process at a minimum of every couple years, this could be more cost effective. Most yards charge close to 8 bucks a foot, they charge me for 40 since they go from bow pulpit to the tip of the davits, and then the two gallons at close to 200 bucks a gallon, and the cost of one haul out for everything, not to mention my time and I'm pushing upwards of close to 6 to 700 a paint job, or more by the time Iget supplies, etc. So the copper coat can cost me a grand and after two haulouts for my regular process, I have the roi

thanks again SD, i'll e-mail you for additional info if i run into a road block

sailingdog · Oct 30, 2008

Good enough ITmaster... glad to help.

newly anonymous · Oct 30, 2008

Every third spring, here it Northern California

nm

Warren Milberg · Oct 30, 2008

With an aging fiberglass boat (1986) and captain (19....), I like getting the boat out of the mid-Chesapeake each winter for a variety of reasons. I like to see what, if anything is cooking below the waterline, inspect all thru-hulls, make sure all is well with the rudder, shaft and cutless bearing, iron keel, and to keep the bottom clean and ready for next spring. While the Chesapeake can, and has, frozen over, these deep freezes are becoming more and more infrequent. Same thing with "big" snow storms. Yet the one season I did leave a previous boat in the water over the winter the bay froze solid out a few hundred yards -- and then it snowed about 8 inches. Being worried about the boat, I drove to the marina, only to find that I had to park pretty far away and trudge through some deep snow drifts to get to the dock. When I got to the dock, it was both snow and ice covered and pretty slippery getting to my boat -- which was frozen in place in the middle of the slip. I could see that the cockpit had a lot of snow in it, as did the parts of the deck that were not covered. Yet I could not get on the boat due to it's frozen location. And if I did get on, then what?

I like getting the boat out each winter, snugging it up on the hard, and not worrying about it...