Bottom Paint with Sterndrives

I was always told you need to leave the gap between the transom assemblies and the bottom paint.

I just had the bottom done, going to black for the first time replacing the white.

The old paint had a 1" gap, but the marina did the new black right up to the sterndrives.

I'm reading now -- with certain bottom paints -- it's safe to go right up to the edge. I have a call into them to let me know which type they used, but at this point I don't know.

Also for those of you that do your own bottoms, how careful are you when it comes to masking the through-hulls and stuff like that?

The drives are aluminum, the issue is if you use a traditional copper or tin metal based bottom paint you can cause galvanic corrosion.

The thru hulls are bronze so not an issue with copper bottom paints

Paints also come as ablative or hard surfaced, ablative means it is like a chalky surface that slowly washes away exposing new bottom paint to maintain effectiveness.
But tend to be "rougher" as they are usually thick and wear un-evenly. Harder paints are smother and less drag but may not be effective against fouling as long.
Some paints will go bad out of the water, stop working when the boat goes back in.
Others are good after long periods on the hard. (think rack stored)

So you need to look at all aspects of how you boat, where salt/fresh/brackish, your drive type, slip or rack stored when selecting a bottom paint.

Gotcha thanks. These are Bravo III -- brackish, stored in the open slip six months, stored on land the other 6 months.

Many of the newer, mostly ecological minded, bottom paints can be used on metals without an issue. I'm using Pettit ECO HRT on the pod housings and trim tabs based on both Pettit and Volvo's suggestion. I am using the Pettit Vivid on the hull only because it is what the previous owner used. But since it has worked well for us its unlike I will change in the future.