ctenidae wrote:Went out and scraped off the barnacles this weekend (waterline ended up being about 2 inches above the molded-in bootstripe, oddly, so we didn't paint bottom paint up far enough).
Is your bootstripe actually at the waterline? I dry sail my boat, and usually am in a hurry to leave the dock, but I found a photo recently that showed the stern deeper in the water than the waterline by about 1-2" for a fully rigged, but otherwise empty boat (well, there was about 120 lbs of battery and motor in the cuddy).
ctenidae wrote:Have to say, the Rustoleum didn't hold up all that well- not surprisingly especially where it was regularly wet, but even further up, not great- some cracking and blistering. It is also pretty soft, and scratches pretty easy. We'll do touch ups, which should be easy, but I'm not entirely satisfied.
The DS is small enough that touch-ups should be manageable efforts. But if a more expensive paint allows you to do the job only every other, or every third year, I'd say you come out ahead.
I've just used Pettit's EasyPoxy (not an epoxy, despite the name) on a rudder. I liked how easy it was to apply, but have real concerns about how soft it feels and how easily it seems to scratch (and that is before I've had a chance to use the thing in the water).
When I repaint the hull, I'm leaning toward System Three's water-reducible linear polyurethane. I've used their clear version of that extensively and am happy with the results, and a friend has done his dinghy in their white. It needs a little more care in applying and promises to be very hard. (I also like the water-reducible part)
I have probably mentioned that already, but there's a publication, Practical Sailor, that does tests of paints, chemicals and other boat related items on a continual basis - they're like that other magazine dedicated to product testing and free of ads.
ctenidae wrote:Of course, with no real basis for comparison, maybe it really held up comparatively well. Seems a painted boat is always going to have issues not found in the original gelcoat, but the paint really let go and flaked badly in some places.
I have a painted hull on my DS1, done by some previous owner with paint from International. It held fine for many years until it finally failed (crumbled) in some spots. Most of it is firm enough to have survived several bouts of not overly aggressive pressure washing.
An early failure like this (flaking, blisters) always raises the suspicion that you might have had remnants of wax, or worse, silicone in your gelcoat, or that you either didn't sand to give the proper "key" or that your sandpaper left it's own residue. Can you describe what you did as prep, before painting, preferably with details?