Spring Fever

[Alan]

GreenLake,

I'd love to hear about progress with the paint job. I bought the System Three paint samples, in Silvertip Yacht Primer, white, and clearcoat. So far, all I've done is paint clearcoat over epoxy on a sample board, but I could be tempted to paint my whole boat white.

It seems like good stuff, and within the ability of someone with little experience but lots of patience for sanding and polishing (that'd be me).

[Jim Akins]

I decided on Marpro Super B Gold Ablative Bottom Paint for my boat. I have heard great things about this stuff from the locals who have started using it on their fiberglass boats. If it works as good as it looks, I should be very happy with it.

Brings me to another question:

How often do the folks on here do bottom paint on their Daysailers?

[GreenLake]

GreenLake,

I'd love to hear about progress with the paint job. I bought the System Three paint samples, in Silvertip Yacht Primer, white, and clearcoat. So far, all I've done is paint clearcoat over epoxy on a sample board, but I could be tempted to paint my whole boat white.

It seems like good stuff, and within the ability of someone with little experience but lots of patience for sanding and polishing (that'd be me).

I've used their clear over epoxy on wood and had good experience with that. A friend did a smaller dinghy with the white and is now helping me with this.

If either of us had experience in or confidence in spraying, that would be the way to go, but we settled for "roll and tip".

The key seems to be to thin the paint well, to put a very thin layer down with a foam roller, and to have the second person, immediately brush very lightly with a very good, very clean, dry brush to pop the bubbles. We got better with practice.

We did not succeed in getting the paint free of all brush marks, but we added an extra coat and sanded / buffed the paint. That helped with blending in the waterline as well.

We used a coat of neat epoxy instead of using the primer, but that was mainly because we had so many spider cracks in the gelcoat which we hoped the epoxy would seep into and help fill. Time will tell. The white did not "hide" all that well, so a coat of primer might have improved that.

WR-LPU is water based, so you escape having to mess with toxic fumes, and is suitable for decks and topsides, or hulls that are dry-sailed (48h max immersion).

[Alan]

GreenLake,

Thanks. The 48-hour limit is valuable advice, since one of our planned trips would have the boat in a marina for three days or so. And I've also got spider cracks, in the coamings and around the cuddy opening, so epoxy sounds like a good solution.

Does the DSI have non-skid areas on the deck like the DSII, and if so, what did you do with them? Anything besides paint?

[Alan]

On the subject of rolling the boat over, I bookmarked this a while back:

gallery/image_page.php?image_id=49

Added the thumbnail for you. -GL

[Jim Akins]

Alan, That is a gorgeous paint job. I would be afraid to sail her after an awesome paint job like that...WOW! .

Good advice on using an engine puller to do the job. Unfortunately I don't have one or know anyone who has one. But a very good way to get it done there...Hats off to you!

[Alan]

Jimbo,

Just to be clear, it isn't my boat, as much as I'd like that to be the case.

I've pulled a fair number of engines in my day, and I was able to rent them from auto parts stores or tool rental places. The last time I was in an auto parts store, they were selling brand new ones for about what I used to pay to rent them.

[GreenLake]

The 48-hour limit....

may have been overstated by me. Don't know what random synapse fired there.

The literature by the manufacturer says: "Constant immersion for months can cause blistering of the paint film" as well as "not meant for use below the waterline on constantly-immersed boats."

one of our planned trips would have the boat in a marina for three days or so.

If you don't do this trip immediately after painting, I don't see why that shouldn't work. You do want to limit time in the water in general, whenever you don't use an anti-fouling type bottom paint. At some point you'll catch some critters growing on your boat - but probably not punctually after so-and-so many hours.

It sounds like you normally dry-sail your boat, and this trip seems to still fit those parameters, so I wouldn't be too nervous.

I've also got spider cracks, in the coamings and around the cuddy opening, so epoxy sounds like a good solution.

We scraped a groove in as many as was practical, and filled with 3M High Strength Marine Filler. Any structural epoxy based filler would have done as well. We sanded and faired and then ended with a coat of neat epoxy.

The latter was squeegeed on, don't try to brush, you get the world's worst brush marks. Clear Coat is thinner than the Silvertip Laminating epoxy and we felt the former gave the better results. (We tried both, because we had run out of one of them half way through - there had been less in some bottles than what we remembered).

Does the DSI have non-skid areas on the deck like the DSII, and if so, what did you do with them? Anything besides paint?

Haven't quite got there yet. It was just painted and I may see whether I can rough the old paint enough without sanding flat the pattern. The plan would then be to just paint. WR-LPU, this time in red.

[GreenLake]

So, here is how I easily rolled my hull by myself
[thumb=1217]

Nice diagram.
I did the old block and tackle setup in my garage to emulate the engine hoist. I had two slings, not one, but also was able to turn the boat by myself.
Never could do it again, because that garage simply won't empty again - had to rent someone else's....

[talbot]

I'll keep that one in mind. My boat fits onto a narrow terrace that I constructed between my house and two gum trees on my steep lot. The last time I did the bottom paint, I hauled the boat straight up into the trees with a winch and block & tackle. Very stressful in every respect.

[Jim Akins]

Thanks GL, I am a senior designerd & drafter by trade so I use diagrams and sketches to explain as much as possible.

So now my focus is now on the hull.

I did find that for the compression post a 2 inch PVC coupling with an o.d. of 2- 3/4" fits nicely down in the existing glassed in bottom tube. I am also strengthening the cuddy floor so the kids can crawl around in there without cracking the floor.

[Jim Akins]

Did not mean to quote myself there... ha ha ha!

[talbot]

Did anyone answer the question about how often to bottom-paint? Every 2 years for me, using Interlux VC17. Relatively low-copper antifouling/antislime paint. Very thin coat, easy to apply, short time to launch. Incredibly volatile. Wear a good mask.

My boat's in the water for 6 months. I used Interlux VC Performance Epoxy for the boot stripe, but it's the wrong paint. I get gel coat blisters. Next time I'm thinking maybe one of the new "green" no-copper anti-slime paints for the boot stripe.

What it really needs is to be totally dried out (hard in Oregon), sanded down, and sealed with a blister coat/primer, then painted all the way to the deck.

[GreenLake]

Thanks GL, I am a senior designerd & drafter by trade so I use diagrams and sketches to explain as much as possible.

So now my focus is now on the hull.

I did find that for the compression post a 2 inch PVC coupling with an o.d. of 2- 3/4" fits nicely down in the existing glassed in bottom tube. I am also strengthening the cuddy floor so the kids can crawl around in there without cracking the floor.

OK, I "fixed" your quote

I did like the palm tree. Nice touch. Is that what grows in your yard?

[Jim Akins]

I did like the palm tree. Nice touch. Is that what grows in your yard?

Yes GL, in fact here in sunny central Florida, just about anything will grow in my yard!!! LOL