What kind of bottom paint

[Mary Connaughton]

I have a 1994 26 ft water ballast Hunter. How do I fgure out what type of paint it has on the bottom? I read in one post that one kind of paint doesn't need to be sanded (I'm praying I have that kind)! Also, should I expect that the paint is toxic, and take precautions?Also, if it turns out I do have to sand, I'd appreciate any tips. Does it matter what type of electric sander I use? I got out there Saturday with block of wood and sandpaper and decided pretty fast, that was not going to work. It would take 10 years to finish Thanks for any suggestions.Mary

 

[Kim Ramey]

Worst Job on a Boat, but do-able

I just redid my bottom on my 88 33.5 Legend last year. Stripped it and applied five gallons of barrier coat epoxy and then two gallons of Petit Trinidad SR. I then stored my boat on the hard thru the Hurricane season, so I had to sand and apply two more gallons of bottom paint before I went back in the water last month. I wet sanded with 80 grit paper for three days before rolling on the new paint. Put dish detergent in with your water when wet sanding. I talked to a worker from the boat yard who demonstrated how to sand and was shocked by his very cursory sanding technique. He actually just wiped the area with sandpaper and moved on. Told me that nobody sands like I was doing. So, I scaled back on my sanding (not to his degree however) and the job looks great. Absolutely the worst part of a bottom paint job is stripping. I didn't use an electric sander but I did spend a couple of days with an air compressor and DA sander while stripping prior to the barrier coat. It was awful - dusty, smelly, itchy and I'm sure it was toxic. I finally paid one of the yard workers $100 to bring his equipment over on Sunday and finish up my stripping job. He was a pro and made it look great right into the gel coat in three hours. Well anyway, when preparing to paint over an old bottom, I prefer wet sanding which is messy but you can forget the dust. Go to your paint company web site and read their instructions. Petit, Interlux etc all have excellent websites. They are the experts. Just don't over do the sanding. It doesn't have to be perfect. But it must be clean and scratched open to allow the new paint coat to adhere. Its not fun but like I said, . . . it is do-able." and you can save a lot of money doing it yourself. A Lot. . .

 

[Corinne]

Ablative paints...

Mary, I use Interlux ACT...that's the paint they say doesn't need sanding. Fortunately, I already knew that it was on the bottom when I bought the boat. I highly recommend it. Each season, I just get one of those heavy duty nylon scrubby things and wash it down. Then put on the new coat. Comes out of the water in the fall nice & clean.

 

[Rob McLaughlin]

Ablative?

I have ablative paint on mine as well, but I was told that when I bought it. The main difference is that ablative is meant to "wear" off as you go. The dead paint is shed a tiny bit at a time so that paint doesn't layer up and cause the need for major surgery (i.e., Kim's e-mail). My suggestion would be to use Ablative paint in your application, because you can put ablative over traditional, but not the other way around.Also, even though they say you don't have to sand it, you should have a surface that the new paint will stick to. You can do this by the scrub method that Corinne mentions, or (in my case), I use a drywall sander - its on the end of a broomstick with a flexible neck. The paper is a half-sheet cut long-ways. Its not very hard at all - you're not trying to sand all the paint off, anyway, just get the dead stuff off the top.As another little tid-bit, Practical Sailor just came out with their review on bottom paint. West Marine CPP actually came out better and cheaper than Interlux ACT (which I used up to now as well). I'm going to go to CPP this year.Good luck!

 

[Mary Connaughton]

Thanks

Both of these sound like great ideas. Now I'm not quite so overwhelmed. Thanks!Mary