Bottom Paint

[Pete]

Plan to bottom paint my new 27 this winter. I thought that most if not all my boating would be on the Great Lakes and was leaning towards either VC 17 or Pettit Vivid. However now rethinking my plans and might end up keeping her in the water in SW Florida and with that in mind would probably need something with better protective qualities. Apart from the usual options I've recently been reading about Copper Coat and wondered if any of you have first hand experience with this material.
Pete

 

[C Dawg]

Pete: I was also going to post a question about bottom paint and I saw your message. I will just add my question to yours and if we get any replies, maybe we can both learn something.

We had the bottom painted on our R-29 when it was brand new in the spring of 2010. So we are coming up on 3 years with the same paint. (We used Interlux Bottom Kote w/ACT) The boat stays in the Everett, WA marina when we are not boating around in the San Juans or up in Canada (which we try to do as much as possible in the summer). The water in Everett is not quite as salty as the rest of Puget Sound because the marina is about a half mile up the Snohomish River. That being said the are still lots of barnacles and muscles growing below the high tide line on all the docks and logs in the marina. We do keep the boat out of the water on its trailer about 5 months each year for the winter. Each year there have been a few places where the bottom paint as partly come off and I have patched up those areas myself while the boat is on the trailer. This year when I took the boat out for the winter I noticed a few barnacles had grown on the hull. Interestingly they were only on the stern of the boat, the very bottom around the keel area and on the hull around where the propeller is. The barnacles were easily scraped off, especially after the boat had been out of the water for a month. I an guessing that if barnacles are starting to form and it has been 3 years, it is time for a new coat of bottom paint. I was wondering people (with more experience than I) had any thoughts on the issue.

I have discussed this with Andrew. If we do get a new coat of bottom paint we will probably use the folks in Everett that the Monroe Factory currently uses to paint the bottoms of the brand new R-29s and R-31s. I believe they are recommending the Sea Hawk brand right now. When I get serious about it in a couple of months I will figure out exactly what type of paint to use. We will probably have it painted in the spring just before I put the boat back in the water for the season. Doug.

 

[Pete]

Doug,

My question was specifically about Coppercoat. It looks very interesting since it is a pretty hard, smooth finish so minimal impact on speed and fuel consumption and also, while its initial cost is high, it's supposed to last 10 years. It is also claimed to be better for the environment than other ablative bottom paints - less copper removed in use or when being cleaned.

Your experience with a "conventional" bottom paint sounds pretty typical. Having to repaint after 3 years (or even 2 in warmer waters) is about par for the course.
Pete

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Pete:

I had Coppercoat on a prior boat that was used mostly in salt water. After two years barnacles were starting to grow and had to start having the hull scrapped clean so we had the boat pulled and I cleaned, prepped and reapplied Coppercoat but sold the boat after another year so I had no more Coppercoat experience. My point is that my experience showed the paint did not last 10 years, not even close.

On my R27 I applied Petit Vivid over a Petit primer. This is a great product if you take your boat out of the water for stretches of time and use it in either salt or fresh water. But my guess here is that a fresh topcoat will need to be applied every three years. If you want to read and or see the how's and why's of what we did you can click on the two links below, the top one is prep, which is the most important for any bottom paint applied, and the second link is the final steps and finished product.

http://trailertrawlerlife.com/trailerab ... LoNkY7NrHg

http://trailertrawlerlife.com/cruising/ ... LoNGY7NrHg

Jim F

 

[knotflying]

Ditto on Jim's comments. After much research we went with Petit Vivid. We use the boat in Florida and the Northeast and we are entering our 3rd season. A few touch ups here and there and an occasional rub with a doobie if it is in the water for a month or longer sitting at a dock. Petit Vivid is a good product especially good of a boat that is trailered and sits on a trailer for periods of time.

 

[Pete]

Helpful responses, thanks.

I've had very good results with Pettit Vivid in freshwater, but wasn't certain if it would be effective on a boat kept permanently in the water in SW Florida. In that situation I've found that, even with the best paints, frequent cleaning is necessary if you want to maintain top performance.

Jim, when you were using Coppercoat did you also have a diver clean the bottom on a regular basis?

By the way my boat yard is recommending I apply an (expensive) epoxy barrier coat but since the Ranger hull is vinylester that really isn't necessary.

Pete

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Pete:

I did not have the bottom cleaned on a schedule however I did have it cleaned on 2 occasions plus when I was in shallow clear water at anchor I'd do a once around on the hull the best I could. When we applied the Petit bottom paint to the Ranger Tug(2coats on the bottom, 3 on the sides and bow) I did not use an epoxy because of the vinyl ester. What I did do was dewax the hull by using an Acetone wipe, very light sand and a reclean acetone wipe. I then applied Petit's "Bottom Prep" 6998 skip sand primer, which is silver in color. On the container it states "adhere's tenaciously to gelcoat" and "ideal over vinyl ester gelcoat" The added benefit of the Bottom Prep primer is that if your bottom paint is a contrasting color you'll be able to see when the silver bottom prep starts to show thru, meaning your bottom paint has worn thin. My plan is roll a fresh coat of bottom paint on the hull sides and bow each springs.

Jim F

 

[Pete]

Jim

I took a look at your photos. Very professional! Did you by any chance compare performance and fuel consumption before and after painting?
Pete

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

I do keep track of fuel burn but don't belief there was much difference at the slow trawler speeds we travel when comparing a clean non bottom painted hull with a bottom painted. With that said, and you saw the nasty barnacle infested hull we had, only after 30 days in Florida water last winter......the boats performance was, even at trawler speeds, slowed down dramatically but I can not tell you by how much as the records are on the boat and it is in heated storage until spring time.

Jim F

 

[Captmike]

Practical Sailor has a number of articles on bottom paint and good comparisons on effectiveness and longevity.

 

[baz]

Pete: I have no advice or experience with Copper coat bottom paint. However, I do want to add to this thread the fact that having the boat kept in a covered slip will reduce and help avoid barnacle buildup on the hull. Barnacles like sunlight and so if the boat is kept in a covered slip that does a good job of protecting the hull from direct light the likelihood of barnacles being attracted to the hull's surface is reduced.

I keep my boat in a covered slip and have it stern in, leaving just a small portion of the port bow hull exposed to sunlight. This portion of the hull is the only place that barnacles attach to.

I have diver service for underwater zinc inspection and the diver always checks the hull bottom paint by lightly scrubbing it to see how soft it is. My marina has a policy of not allowing divers to scrub and clean complete hulls while the boat is in its slip.

My boat is kept at Port of Edmonds, WA (Puget Sound) in a covered slip and the boat points essentially north in its slip.

My R-25 was originally bottom painted by the factory in 2009. Unfortunately, the method used at that time was to chemically etch the hull before applying a bottom paint. This method was a dismal failure as Ranger admitted to. They no longer use this method. I had my boat hauled out and bottom painted last March. A thorough sanding prep job was performed and two coats of paint applied afterwards. I did not use Copper coat paint per the advice of my boat yard professional who did the work for me. It was very much needed as the original paint was literally peeling off. A light power wash removed the remaining paint with ease. 😉 No matter, even with this initial inferior bottom painting method I was able to avoid repainting the hull for close to 3 years having the boat kept in a covered slip.

My diver tells me the bottom paint remains hard and does not rub off, no barnacles seen anywhere and the boat has been 9 months in salt water since the new bottom paint was applied.

I'm hoping to get 3 to 5 years on my new bottom paint... 😱 :roll:

 

[Pete]

A covered slip would be great but they are virtually non-existent in my cruising waters - Lake Michigan and SW Florida. Not too big a deal up north but would love to be able to protect my boat, both topsides and bottom, from the Florida sun. I guess they don't make economic sense in hurricane-prone areas.
Pete

 

[baz]

You could always have a canvas cover made for the boat to protect its topside surfaces. 😉

Another option (and maybe expensive -- dunno) is to employ a floating platform which gets inflated with air/pump to raise the boat almost completely out of the water. There's a boat opposite to my slip that employs this device and most of the hull is out of the water. I was amazed that my Marina allowed this as they are so strict with their rules/polices etc. This boat has a twin-stern drive so most of that hardware is also raised out of the water.