Bottom paint question

H

Happy R's

New Member
Jul 5, 2011
3
Lake Norman, N.C.
Boat Info
2000 270 Sundancer
Engines
7.4 Mercruiser
Hello all,

My wife and I are new to CSR. What a great site.

We purchased a 270 Sundancer last summer that had ablative paint applied to the bottom a couple of years ago. We need to have the bottom repainted and the shop we went to suggested we take it down to the gelcoat and replace it with hard paint and no barrier coat since we're going to put it on a lift when we get it back. It's a freshwater boat and we'll be operating in freshwater.

My question is this: If we're going to put the boat on a lift, does the bottom need a barrier coat or epoxy applied first?


Thanks
 
A lot of ablative paint has unlimited dry time, and is highly resistant to wear being trailer-ed. My understanding is that hard paint is heavier, and no real sure fire way to know when you need to replace it, whereas ablative will noticeably wear away.
 
Do not sand gell coat it is coated from factory with vinalester resins and is better that barrer coat all sea rays 95 and above have it.
 
Vinylester resin is not a coating, but rather it is the resin used to make the hull. Sanding will not hurt it nor will sanding make the boat more prone to blisters. Sanding will, however, make the bottom paint adhere better.

A lift stored or dry stacked boat should be painted with a hard bottom paint. The lift or forklift will eventually wear an ablative paint where the bunks contact the bottom.
 
FrankW is (as always) correct. You might look into soda blasting in lieu of sanding. To do our 280 it cost $ 745.00 to completely remove all of our old bottom paint. In my neighborhood thats just enough to get the big stuff scraped off on a sanding job. There is a down side, you have to clean up any exposed voids in the gelcoat. I spent about two hours and $20 in epoxy doing that. I also applied several coats of epoxy barrier coat. BUT, our boating is in th ocean and we are in the water all season and I was installing an ablative on top. With the right choice of hard bottom, you may be able to skip the barrier coat portion.

Henry
 
If the boat is lift stored, does it need any bottom paint at all? Wouldn't it be better to have the bottom soda blasted then sanded/compounded smooth to bring back the gel coat. Paint kills performance & gas mileage.
 
SteveRuss said:
If the boat is lift stored, does it need any bottom paint at all? Wouldn't it be better to have the bottom soda blasted then sanded/compounded smooth to bring back the gel coat. Paint kills performance & gas mileage.
Click to expand...

This what my neighbor did who keeps his boat on a lift.... I am not sure that you can get the bottom to look like it was never painted. It might be cleaner to go with the hard paint was originally suggested..
 
'kills performance and gas mileage' may be an overstatement. Almost everything I have heard, read, and researched states on a 30 foot boat bottom paint reduces speed by 1-2 mph at most. Gas mileage is minimal at best, you hurt it more by adding people to the boat. Unless you have a hull speed limited boat the 1-2 mph shouldnt matter.

You cant just strip the paint down and have a nice gelcoat, if the paint was put on correctly the gel coat was scored so the paint would adhere in the first place.
I am guessing, but this would cost more than repainting the bottom would?
 
Soda blasting leaves a roughened surface, not as bad as grit on steel, but pronounced and desired for paint adhesion. It also does not remove the 100% of the paint, maybe 99.9% just enough so that even if one sanded and buffed the gelcoat it would not look at all like original and sort of mottled.

I also agree that a smooth hard paint on the bottom of a 30' power boat will have a negligible effect as other factors such as guests, water, supplies, and fuel will have far greater impact.

Henry
 
Just ordered my two gallons for this years painting. Interlux ultra with bioguard. Hard paint is much more preferred over ablaitive when boat will be trailered, lifted, or out of the water for extended periods of time. As far as base coat, since you have to take down the ablitive that's on there, soda blast, base coat and hard paint would be my route. Good luck....
 
Thanks so much for all of the replies. We went ahead with a Trinidad coat and will see how it goes. I appreciate the responses.
 
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