Bottom Painting

[Irish'81]

I just purchased a 21E-C (never painted) and will be keeping the boat in saltwater. Is there a specific brand and type of paint that you recommend? Slime and Barnacles are a problem. Also do you recommend painting the running gear? They also mentioned prop speeding. Is that necessary and worth the money?

Thanks.

 

[Andrew Custis]

Bottom paint is one of those topics that can be a very wide spread discussion. For the NW, we use a seahawk Af-33 bottom paint. There are different recommendations and techniques for different environments and waters that the boat is being used in. Perhaps someone closer to you will have some better guidance on what paint to use.

We use a vinyl ester resin so its not that important to have a barrier coat for blistering.

The company we use for bottom paint does not do the running gear. Some can recommend prop speed but the feedback I have received has been 50/50. I would suggest creating a post in the chat section about bottom paint and prop speed to get others feedback.

Congratulations on your new boat!

 

[RProffer]

Congratulations on your new boat. We are just around the corner from you on the Patuxent River close to Solomons Island. We trailer our R21-EC so we do not use bottom paint. On our previous boats we used Interlux Micron Extra on our fiberglass and was very happy with it. Put on one coat for each years worth of protection you want (e.g. 3 coats for 3 years protection). It may be expensive to do multiple coats, but in the long run will be cheaper and far less work. Be sure to follow manufacturers instructions. You can pull the boat out in the winter without affecting the bottom paint.

I never did find a good bottom paint for use on metal. Nothing I tried provided 100% protection.

 

[Brian B]

Pettit Zinc Coat Barnacle Barrier 1792 for your underwater metals.

 

[Automaticman865]

Fairly new to this forum but this is an old trick to use.
First coat of bottom paint use one color. Then the next coats are a different color.
You wont have to repaint till you see the original color.
Stuart

 

[knotflying]

I have used Petit Vivid and to date have been very satisfied. This paint is good if you are pulling the boat out and trailering. We boat in the Northeast and in Florida and have had very little barnacle build up. Most of my ware has been on the sides. After 2 years I just did a touch up job while it was on the trailer. An ugly job and one of those chores I will most likely pay to have done in the future.

 

[baz]

I have used Petit Vivid and to date have been very satisfied. This paint is good if you are pulling the boat out and trailering. We boat in the Northeast and in Florida and have had very little barnacle build up. Most of my ware has been on the sides. After 2 years I just did a touch up job while it was on the trailer. An ugly job and one of those chores I will most likely pay to have done in the future.

Mike... you did one of your most hated jobs... well done... :lol:

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Like Mike, we also used Petit Vivid. We also applied a Petit Vivid no sand primer first, silver in color. We did this for two reasons, the first being that bottom paint really adheres to this stuff. Secondly we put black as our bottom paint color so when the bottom paint wears out you see the silver and know it's time to paint the bottom again. we applied one coat primer and two coats bottom paint.

 

[Irish'81]

Thanks everyone for the info. I think I'm going to forgo the prop speeding. I'm going with Pettit Vivid and Pettit Zinc Coat Barnacle Barrier 1792 for the metals.

 

[BaseCampAnne]

Does anyone use a metal paint on the trim tabs?

The sunny weather seems to encourage a grass-type growth so that one might consider them functioning like a greenhouse 😱

 

[Brian B]

Does anyone use a metal paint on the trim tabs?

The sunny weather seems to encourage a grass-type growth so that one might consider them functioning like a greenhouse 😱

Pettit Zinc Coat Barnacle Barrier 1792, this only comes in a spray can so be careful of overspray.
Make sure you do not paint the zincs if you have them installed.

 

[knotflying]

I also use the Petit Barnacle barrier, but that will not stop the green build up. Once in a while while swimming from the boat, grab a brush and give them a brushing and it come right off.

 

[sleepyboat]

My Pettit paint done by my dealer held up well last season but I had a large amount of barnacles on the rear two thirds of the hull slowing the boat considerably. I spoke with the Pettit rep, Steve Miller at the boat show in Boston and he recommended the Ultima Eco. Similar to the copper base paint but you do not have to put the boat in the water within two weeks after painting.

I also asked him about using the barnacle barrier on the trim tabs because of the green growth and barnacles that grow wild on their surfaces. He said not to use that paint on the trim tabs but to use the Ultima paint. Don’t shoot the messenger!

Mike told me doing the bottom is like doing roofing. I think is like doing muffler work, on your back, looking up and arms above your head. I also think that every boat owner should prep and paint their hull to appreciate the work that goes into it so when you get a price to do the work you understand why.

John on Sallison

 

[knotflying]

The interesting phenomenon about bottom paint is that when you open the can and just look at it, it will get on you somewhere.

 

[baz]

Ladybugs eat aphids, right ? So what eats barnacles ? Attacking Gastropods... where can I buy a few gallons of these fellas ? :roll:

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Whatever you do about bottom paint don't leave the boat in salt water for 30 days like we did before starting the job, you could end up with a load of barnacles on your hull. We were in Florida cruising for 4 weeks with intentions of doing our bottom paint project in the Keys. We were taken by surprise when we pulled the boat and the hull was covered with barnacles from the bow to the stern. Even after power washing the hull I had to scrap it. After scraping as much of the remainder I was lucky enough to find a product called On-Off @ West Marine. When one applies On-Off the balance of the barnacle crustation almost slides off, it actually dissolves with a little additional elbow grease on the stubborn spots. The On-Off would work and did work well on the running gear, trim tabs, etc. To look at what a mess I had to deal with and the results before we bottom painted click on the attached link from our blog.

http://trailertrawlerlife.com/trailerab ... bYkPaXTpSU