Paint Experience

[dscribner]

I'll be painting my baby in the spring and I'm looking for wisdom from the trailor crowd. Does anybody have experience with single stage paint below the water line? If you ask this to the general sailing public you'll get "Interlux bottom paint, copper a must, ablative, every two years" and a lot of other great advice if my boat was to steap in brine and post primordial soup for months on end. Trailer sailors, on the otherhand, are more intent on how durable the product is as it will be sliding across bunks or rollers every weekend.

I've seen SM-1000, deceptively hard and soft at the same time. How about Blue Water Mega Gloss/Mega Gloss Gold?

 

[JoyRide28]

Lake sailor here. We put in in April and leave in until October. Boat is on trailer for the winters. I have been very pleased with VC17 (although environmentally it's pretty nasty stuff, the copper). I used a scotch brite pads, both on electric orbital and by hand, to remove everything down to the original gel coat, then put 4 coats of VC 17 on. I touch it up every year and redo it every 4-5 years. If you use this stuff follow the instructions and WEAR A FULL RESPIRATOR.

 

[kenn]

How long will you be leaving the boat in the water - just weekends?

If it's just weekends and you can quickly hose/brush the hull off after every haulout, an anti-fouling isn't strictly necessary. I stripped our hull to the gelcoat in 2009, and since then I've just been washing her when necessary. But I do hope to put on a smooth, tough coat of epoxy bottom paint next spring, and if I ever score a mooring/slip, I'll use VC-17 on top of that.

 

[dscribner]

We've stayed in for a long weekend so far but we trailer, step and launch every time. That's why I don't want to bother with poisonous coatings (call them what they are). Also, I have a trailerable for a reason. Cost. So if I can find a lower cost alternative to the two stage paints, I'm all over that. I will be painting her in the spring and plan to use the nicer winter days (above freezing) to strip and prepare her.

 

[Sumner]

Why are you painting it? For looks? To prevent blistering? Sounds like you don't really want a bottom paint to inhibit growth??

Since we hope to have our boat in the water for some time over the next year in Florida and the northeast I just painted it the other day. It had no evidence of blisters and I wanted to keep it that way and used 2 coats of Sea Hawk Tuff Stuff for a barrier coat and followed that with 3 coats of bottom paint also from Sea Hawk. The Tuff Stuff isn't that expensive and I had to sand the hull with 80 grit anyway so to put on the barrier coat cost a little over $120 and a couple more hours of painting. I would of hated to in the future take a bottom paint all the way off and apply a barrier coat. This was much easier doing it now. The bottom paint we used is an ablative, but suppose to be good for trailered boats. It all looks good, I guess we will know about a year from now who well it worked.

If we were only going to have it in for a week or two at a time I wouldn't of painted it at all.

Good luck,

Sum

Our Trips to Lake Powell, UT - Kootenay Lake, Canada - Priest Lake, ID

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[rgranger]

I've done a lot of painting with good and bad results. I have fully restored a Mac V21, Mac V22 a Coronado 23' and a Coronado 25. Here is what I've learned. Epoxy paint is hard to do well without a lot of equipment and it is toxic as he**.

On the other hand, a good one-part urethane works well on the sides. I like a paint by "Top Secret Marine". The stuff has extremely good coverage and a gallon goes a long way. It also takes about 10 days to reach full hardness so it levels out well with a high gloss. Once set, it is very durable. But don't be impatient and give it the full 10 days or it will sag if you walk around on deck before it is cured.

To get a good looking coverage, use one of the smaller rollers (Lowes has them) that say "smooth" on them. And have a partner follow behind with a dry brush to "knock the tops off" of any lines or bubbles you see in the paint. It is a light brush technique that leaves an almost sprayed on look.

As far as bottom paint goes for a weekender who is not worried about anti-fouling, a high quality, oil based enamel is a good choice for fiberglass (Rustoleum). I like Rustoleum because I know I can always find a color match for WHEN you bang up the bottom during a launch or beaching. Paint it on the same way as the urethane and you will get a high gloss finish and have the others at the marina coming to admire your boat during launch. I have a chocolate colored brown bottom on my boat with tan sides and a very light cinnamon top. The bottom is Rustoleum. I've done two 4 day weekends in the Albemarle sound this summer and only needed a hose-off when I pulled out. No problems.

If you are going to leave it in the water then that is a different story.

 

[dscribner]

Sum,
The sides of the boat are, well, patchy. She was obviously painted and touched up. Some of the paint was sort of blue, you know, like when Grandama used to put bluing in the wash to make it brighter. (Actually, for me it's Memere prounounced Mem-ay) The difference is slight and only shows when you're close up. There are gouges from docking and the gloss is gone. So, I'll repaint the topsides. The bottoom is abblative paint and comes off like chalk if you brush against it. It's thick and pealed away in spots. It's just time for a paint job.

RGranger,

That's the stuff I was looking for! Exactly! We launch and retrieve so anitfouling is not required or desired. Is that Rustoleum Marine paint of something you can get at Walmart?

 

[rgranger]

Rustoleum is just plain old rustoleum.... you can get it at WalMart or Lowes or Home Depot. It is marketed as a metal protective paint. I'm guessing a high quality auto enamal would be good too but I like rustoleum for the fact that 5 years from now I'll be able to find the exact color match. I've used it on two different boats and both looked great. In fact, on the first boat I painted this way I used rustoleum on the bottom and sides. It looked great. Just keep the old can in your shed so you can remember what the color was called. You can also find the same shades in spray paint but the spray will not give you as fine a finish as the roll and tip method. I've tried and it is just not as glossy.

If you go to my profile page and click on my albums you can see a picture of the MacGregor V21 I restored. The sides are Rustoleum (a shade called Sail Blue). The bottom is Rustoleum Navy Blue.

 

[Tom Hoffman]

I sanded off the old blue bottom paint and was going to go with copper enhanced bottom paint, I was told by a Yacht designer friend that since I was going to keep the boat in the water for short periods weeks, not months, and only in fresh water. He told me that I had probably opened up the gel coat by sanding and needed to re seal it using a single part Epoxy. (Polyurethane) I believe. I asked him what brand he recommended and he did some research and came back with the "Petit brand 'EasyPoxy'". I had already been recommended that paint as a good interior paint to change my interior color from mustard yellow to white and already had a gallon.

We went ahead and painted the bottom with the EasyPoxy and the interior as well. The paint is rated for both below water and above. It is also useable as a topsides paint. Next spring, I am going to paint he top of the boat using the same product. It really goes on nice.

Here are pics of my boat. You will have to go thru a lot of them to find the ones showing the before and after shots of the bottom.

http://sports.webshots.com/album/576734303qkPIkj?start=112

Here is the page showing the bottom somewhat. I did not paint above the water line. I just buffed it out and waxed it with Insulator Wax. When I got the boat home from spending 5 weeks in the muddy Mississippi, It had a mild coating of slime. I had wanted to pressure wash it off right after pulling it out, but he Marina owner, would not let me do it. His crew had to do it at an $80. charge. I hauled it home about 185 miles and put it back in its spot. I have not washed it yet. The rain has washed most of the dried slime off. It is almost clean now. It I took a brush and warm soapy water, I am sure that it would come clean easily.

Tom...

 

[dscribner]

Tom,

I should have remembered the Smurf post! Yes, the bottom (and the rest of the boat) looks great! You can see a nice gloss on it. And you'd stayed in for 5 weeks? Nice, very nice. We are salt water sailors but being a working stiff, I might spent a short week on the water, max. Normally, a long weekend is the most.

I'm covering my baby today. I had hoped to go out one more time but the winds are becalmed and there's no point in boating when your motor isn't running. So, get ready for the blizzards that are sure to come. This will be the first time that I'm covered her when I could feel my fingers.

Thanks for all the info on the forum over the past couple of years.

Fair Winds,

Don

 

[Freedom77]

If you're not going to keep her in a slip, why bottom paint? I've had Freedom for 33 yrs and have never painted the bottom. Coming on and off the trailer will most likely mar it. It won't increase speed and may even hamper it. Fair Winds...

 

[dscribner]

Right, that's my point. But it needs the bottom paint removed and a new coat of something durable and good looking applied. I like the Petit idea that Tom had. And the Rustoleum isn't bad. Either way, blue on the bottom, dark blue boot stripe, white on the sides with red and blue accent stripes along the toe rail. Boring, I know, but my lovely bride likes it.

So you're in Vegas? I lived there for a couple of years. Spent many a day jumping from the cliffs or fishing for stripers (not strippers!) Out NLV Blvd, right onto Lake Meade Blvd, past the gypsum plant.

 

[monkeybars]

If your a do it yourselfer and your sanding and prepping for a quality job anyway you cant beat gelcoat for price and durabiliity.don't be intimadated by it. if you can spray paint you can spray gelcoat,and make it thicker where you want it,and it will last twice as long as any paint.at 60 bucks a gallon its hard to beat price wise.and a new 2.4mm gun at harbor freight is 30 bucks and you can throw it away when your done.