Bottom Paint

[kayak]

Hello, I am new to sailing and have just purchased a DS2. The hull has a rust colored stain. What product should I use to clean and prepare her for bottom paint, and what bottom paint should I use?

[jdubes]

I just switched to this bottom paint on one of my boats and it's great. I pulled my boat this year and was shocked at how clean it was. I did two coats and still have a little under a half gallon left for a 23ft full keel boat. I hit a sale just right and got it for 120.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_11151_10001_98912_-1?cid=chanintel_google&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=98912

One thing to note, what worked for me might not work for you. Water conditions directly impact how effective the bottom paint is. How I got to this product was real simple. I got in contact with a fleet captain for a specific sailboat in my area and asked him for a recommendation. Racers tend to have good opinions on bottom paint, because next having good sails, having a smooth bottom is the #1 impediment to a fast boat.

One thing I've always done is to use an ablative paint.

[kayak]

jdubes: Thank you for your quick and helpful response.

[talbot]

Good point about location. Also use. The West Marine catalog has a good discussion of bottom paints and cleaners.

If you're trailering, you might be able to go with just the waxed gel coat. (But that might still leave the stain.) For paint, you would just need a hard enamel without anti fouling qualities. (The relatively soft antifouling paint, besides not being needed, will rub off on the trailer each time you launch and retrieve.) If you're mooring in fresh water not yet infested with quagga mussels, you probably only need to worry about algae, so you can get by without a lot of toxic copper. But see what works for your neighbors.

I have found over the last two seasons of wet-mooring that my DSII is prone to gelcoat blisters. I'm going one more season on my present configuration of low-copper bottom paint and enamel bootstripe. But season after this, I'm afraid I'll have to strip, stand, and seal. If you are painting for the first time, you might consider putting on a gel coat sealer now, whatever the final coat. It might save you some messy work later.

[hectoretc]

Hello, I am new to sailing and have just purchased a DS2. The hull has a rust colored stain. What product should I use to clean and prepare her for bottom paint, and what bottom paint should I use?

The original question asks about preparing the bottom for painting, but if it's just the "impossible to remove" water stains you're addressing, maybe there is a way to save the painting effort. This past summer I found about Mary Kate Hull and Bottom cleaner which seems like it will take off anything the water could put on (stains wise). Not sure if it applies in the question here, but it is truly amazing "brush on - rinse off" stuff (definitely no scrubbing required), but has some serious kickback if you aren't properly protected. (gloves, goggles, air mask).
Just a thought in case it's relevant.

[GreenLake]

Practical Sailor reviews those kinds of products regularly. If you are a subscriber, you can access the entire set of back issues online.

[hectoretc]

Question - How does "bottom paint" do what-ever it does, followed closely by, what does it do?

Our lake property (unfortunately) is in a quiet, shallow pocket (bay?) on our lake and so we have the blessing of all forms of submerged and emerged lake growth, cat tails, lillypads, every imaginable bottom weed, etc. We are working to reclaim a portion of our little section of nature, but as noted in other posts, we have real problem with stained hulls etc.
Does bottom paint prevent/reduce that, or is it primarily so muscles, barnacles or other more ambulatory life forms can't attach?

[jdubes]

Bottom paints reduce marine growth that develop on your boat's underwater surfaces. Some use biocides (chemicals) that slowly release during the season to repel underwater aquatic life. They're also ablative so that over time or with a little rubbing or scrubbing the paint flakes away. Our fleet pays a guy to scrub our boats below the water line every 2-3 weeks.

The picture below is what your boat would look like after a while with weak bottom paint in salt water.

I would not put bottom paint on a boat that spends its time in fresh water. The algae growth you'll see in a pond can be taken away with a little water and a brush. Also, Mussels typically don't grow close to the waters surface, and considering a DS only draws about 4-5 inches of water your good. There are also cleansers and lite acids that will remove the brown tint from your boat.

[talbot]

In lakes not (yet) infected with mussels, your main concern is slime. In our local revervoir, a foetid sink ripe with farm runoff, the late summer slime is thick and foul on the hull. One solution is to scrub regularly, as noted above. Not too bad if you keep up with it, and don't mind swimming in agricultural waste.

Another solution is to trailer sail, which I did for 20 years. Solution 3 is slime paint, which I've been pretty happy with so far. On the recommendation of another local sailor, I used Interlux VC-17 racing paint. It has the lowest % of poison of any copper-based paint in the West Marine catalog, has an anti-slime additive, applies quickly, and lasts for a couple of years. You can also get slime-only paints, which have no copper. 1 quart of VC-17 will cover a DS below the boot stripe.

That said, I believe most of my neighbors do not use anti-fouling paint. It works well, but it's poison. Scrubbing is a greener alternative. Also, bottom painting requires a way to get the boat up in the air or careened.