Old bottom paint never in water

Sep 7, 2015
23
Cal 2-27 Chesapeake Bay
PO bottom painted (black), said best paint made but has been out of water for years. Soapy rag turns black when rubbed over. Should I scrub it? Pressure wash it? It looks like some came off near boot stripe when I washed it. I'm almost sure I will be repainting.
 
May 17, 2004
6,152
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
Sounds like an ablative paint. Generally ablatives can survive time out of the water, but I don't know if that's true of years. If it's not flaking off you could probably repaint with another ablative. If you wanted to switch to a hard bottom paint you'd need to take off all of the ablative first.
 

Gunni

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Mar 16, 2010
5,937
Beneteau 411 Oceanis Annapolis
Scrub it in the spring and roll on some Pettit HydroCoat, it sticks to anything, and you renew your biocide that way.
 
Feb 20, 2011
8,062
Island Packet 35 Tucson, AZ/San Carlos, MX
I'd float that old paint, until it gets proven ineffective.