Bottom Paint

[Guest]

Winterized my boat this past weekend, no way my wife will go to the lake this time of the year. Question. My Day Sailer 1 has what is left of some bottom paint. The boat's original owner was in NJ, and kept it in salt water. Makes sense. The paint is all shabby looking. Since I only sail in clear fresh water lakes, I would never have put bottom paint on her. But, since it has been done, I need to make it look good. Looking for some advice and recomendations on bottom paint. And will the paint stick in the winter months? And what kind of prep do I need to do to what is there? Thanks.

David Riley (driley-at-ngc.edu)

[Roger]

What you do may depend to some degree on what part of the country you are in, how hot it gets in the summer and how cold in the winter. Do you plan to dock it on the trailer or in the water?

[Guest]

Good question. I live in western South Carolina, 4 seasons, but longer summer. Highs in the mid 90s and fairly high humidity. Mild to cold winters, low as 10 degrees, seldom snows. Boat will be kept on trailer during off season. Season here is from Late March till end of October.

David Riley (driley-at-ngc.edu)

[Roger]

You can get away with a stiffer paint then. The softer paints which contain elements that leech away while in the water (salt or fresh) prevent the build up of creatures and grime, but if you plan to keep it on a trailer, a harder paint like interlux topsides or even tremclad (althought that is a bit softer) will give you a good hard scratch resistant finish, a fair number of colors to choose from, and the sun is not so harsh that you need to keep to colors that will not sun fade, nor act like a heat magnet when in or out of the water.

If the lake you are in has a lot of oil, scum, algae etc that will stick to your hull, you will want a harder paint that you can wax so the scum will not stick, and not scratch you paint job when you scrub it down several times a season.

As for painting the easiest way to accomplish the task is to careen it over. I did this, this past summer, by myself over two weekends.. no problems and hardly any effort. There are numerous references on this forum on careening, and some series pictures on how it is done. I also have a picture if you wish.

Roger

Good Luck

[Guest]

They make a product that is water soluable specifically to remove bottom paint. You put it on, wait a minute and then scrape it off with a putty knife. Available at West Marine. I redid my bottom a couple of years ago, but unknowing, I sanded the old bottom paint off. This worked well, but WEAR A RESPIRATOR with a charcaol filter (not just a dust mask). Bottom paint is toxic to more than algae. I am in western SC also and my boat stays in the water all the time on Lake Hartwell, so I put bottom paint back on. Above the waterline I used Topside with good results. Good Luck with your painting.
Jim

jim (jimb-at-dsouth.com)

[Guest]

Thank you Roger and Jim. Jim, I am in the Pickens area, was only able to get into the water the early part of the fall, took me 3 months to get registered! So far, I have only been to Lake Jocasse. May have to check out Hartwell in the spring. Back to the painting issue, will these types of paint dry well and properly during the cool and cold months, or should I wait for steady warmer weather in the spring?
Also, I found an easy way to get the boat off the trailer and on its side. We use 4 wooden landscape ties, and kind of move the boat Egyptian style down the ramps of wood. When it safely reaches the bottom, then its and easy matter to turn it all the way oover. Putting the boat back, it's just all in reverese, though it takes a little more effort.

David Riley (driley-at-ngc.edu)

[Guest]

Get a painting guide on Interlux paint (available at West Marine or the same info is on the Interlux website. Follow their directions religiously! Depending on the bottom paint you use there is a window between painting and putting the boat in the water. For the Topsides, application and curing temperature are critical, but watching the weather and/or painting in a garage (which is what I did) you should be able to get the job done over the winter. Once the paint cures our southern temperatures will present no problem. I painted my boat in March.
Jim

jim (jimb-at-dsouth.com)

[Guest]

I assume that the bottom paint is the typical light blue or light green fiberglass "Bottomkote" or similar. It usually looks bad after a season in the water, and may also develop streaks from rain dripping on fresh paint as well. General proceedure is to repaint every spring anyway. My previous experience has been with larger keel boats, in salt water. Best way to prep is to clean bottom as soon as boat comes out of water by use of vigerous scrubbing with heavy, long handle scrub brush and dipping the brush in sandy soil from time to time to pick up abrasive grit to scour off the slime and growth. The key is the liberal use of the sandy grit from the soil. Spray liberally with water as you go, as the grime rehardens as it drys. You are now fully prepped for Spring painting.
If you use bottom paint, in the Spring, for the first coat, I use the bottom paint thinned out with their thinner about 25%, and roll,it on. The thinner helps bond the new paint to the old, then a 2nd coat at full strength.
If you want to get away from the bottom paints, remove with a typical paste remover, from the local discount store, just mask off well where it meets unpainted fiberglass.


John C. Jr (ghampe-at-rcn.com)

[Guest]

GO NAKED! If you are not leaving the boat in the water, you really don't need to paint the bottom. I stripped off several layers of ugly brown paint off my DS. I did it with sandpaper. I started by electric sanding all but a thin layer of paint with 60 grit sandpaper. Then I wet sanded with 120, 400, 900, and 1000 grit sandpaper. The bottom looks better than the topsides now. I doubt anyone could tell there was ever paint on the boat. I agree with the above post that when you are dry sanding, wear some kind of mask (I wore a dust mask, but I was outside too. In an enclosed environment, something stronger would be a good idea.)

J.P. Clowes (jpclowes-at-hotmail.com)

[Guest]

If you do want to clean off the bottom and use a regular paint for color contrast, a super gloss bottom, or what ever, I very , strongly reccommend a "Rustoleum" gloss paint. The can says to apply at temperature above 45 deg., humidity under 85%. You should be able to get a couple days like that between now and Christmas. One coat is plenty to cover, touch up any thin spots the next day. It will be a bit soft for a few days, but after a few months it hardens like it was glass. It may be good to apply soon, and what ever warm days you get over winter, the hardening process should continue, and be that much harder prior to Spring season. ( I first used the Rustoleum on a steel wheelbarrow, 3 or 4 yrs ago. It's tough stuff, carrying stones and such has hardly scratched it at all.)

John C. Jr. (ghampe-at-rcn.com)

[Roger]

I think Tremclad and Rustoleum are similar formulations. I was asking my sailmaker/chandler about a paint for the bottom of my boat this past spring that would suffice for our Manitoba weather, and was asking him about the Interlux stuff. It was he, who suggested the tremclad as every bit as hard without the price, and indicated that it was a similar formulation. It is a rust paint for metal as well, and although the instructions on the can say nothing about fibreglass, it seems to do a good job. It was soft for the first week however, as I put a nice smudge in it putting it back onto the trailer, but no problems thereafter.

[Peter McMinn]

David, I would have to concur with J.P. Clowes' notion of going naked; hull paint slows you down, period. Of course those light spots in the gelcoat need addressing. I think some TLC with some of the shelf products mentioned in this thread, along with wet sanding and wax, you'll find a glorious recovery of hull surface, and consequently, much improved performance. Before that, of course, you'd need to get rid of all that old paint.

Happy scraping!

[Guest]

Thanks for so many good suggestions. From all of your good advice, I am leaning now to going "naked". The boat will never be used in salt water, as I am 200 miles from the coast. The boat will always be trailered when not in use. And besides, the Day Sailer sits so low in the water, particularly the stern, so it's not like you can see much below, unless well heeled over! I am color blind, but what's left of the bottom painted looks to be light blue or perhaps aqua blue. What would be the easiest way to remove it altogether, without harming the fiberglass?

David Riley (driley-at-ngc.edu)

[Guest]

I think the least distructive way to remove bottom paint is to wet sand. Get a sanding block from a hardware store. Use some good sandpaper, (I actually got mine from the auto parts store, they have much finer grains.) Every 15-20 or so strokes, really when it starts to get gummed up, dip it in a bucket of water to clean it off, and repeat. The wet sanding gives a much smoother finish than just dry sanding. To be honest, I don't know why, (Less friction?) It also allows you to see if you are penetrating the gelcoat before you do any real damage, because you are working so closely. I won't lie to you and say it isn't hard work, but I found the results satisfying enough to make it worth while. This is the 2nd boat of mine that I did it to, and I have helped my father wet sand a few too (Including a C&C 29)

J.P. Clowes (jpclowes-at-hotmail.com)

[Guest]

Is there a difference between wet sanding sand paper and dry sanding sand paper? I honestly don't know. What grit are you using, or do you use more than one type to finish the job? Would it be safe to use any kind of power sander? I have a small rechargable type that uses a triangular shape paper I believe. Thanks.

David Riley (driley-at-ngc.edu)