Need for bottom paint??

http://tinyurl.com/ko6uf

The local marina, where it will be delivered to, is trying earnestly to talk me into getting barrier applied along with bottom paint....roughly $1400. Horror stories along with years of experience is part of their speal.

I spoke to Regal, first to customer service, then to a local dealer in Portland. Both said neither step was necessary. Both claimed that Regal makes an exceptional hull and that all is required is cleaning once a year.

I would add that the Columbia never gets above 70 degrees and the boathouse has some current.

Should I or shouldn' I?

-Greg Schoenberg Kalama, Wa.

Ps. My wife flew to Florida and personally inspected it, along with a surveyor. Boat was valued at 35k. We got it for 28k. Shipping, shrink wrap, marina fees are $4500. The boat will be renamed to....."She Said Yes."

I don't get down to boat on the Columbia, so I need to ask whether Kalama is still in the tidal section of the river. If it is, bottom paint will be particularly important.

If Kalama is further upstream, there probably still isn't enough steady current to prevent bottom funk from getting a grip.

Do this, and convince yourself one way or the other: Go down to your new slip, and take a look at the floats and pilings below the waterline. If you don't find any plants or animals growing on the pilings, etc, (a very unlikely result of your inspection), you probably won't collect any hair or mollusks on your hull stored in the same location. On the other hand, if the local underwater flora and fauna are hardy enough to live on a scummy old creosote pile they will have problem migrating to a nice, clean fibergalss hull. In many cases, the bottom paint isn't so much about keeping stuff from attaching as it is sloughing stuff off underway.

$1400 is a whole lot of money, even for a boatyard, to charge for painting a 24-foot boat. Ask around about "winter specials", it isn't unusual to get bottom paint in the winter time for $20-30 a foot, including haulout. Or, pay for the haulout, wreck a set of clothes, expose yourself to some truly nasty chemicals, and paint it yourself for maybe $8-10 a foot. Good bottom paint is very expensive. The labor required to scrape away an entire zoo with a firm grip on a hull that should have been painted is even more expensive.

If you intend to keep the boat in the water and you told that to Regal, then they are idiots.

You paint with anti-fouling to keep the hull free of living organisms. You use a barrier coat to help prevent blisters.

http://www.yachtpaint.com/USA/hotlinks/fiberglass_paintguide.pdf

I also would agree with Jim. Depending on your energy level, facilities, and abilities, this is entirely a DIY project.

-Greg

Dave Hall

>dene wrote:

David OHara Tallahassee, FL

"dene" <gdstrue@aol.com> wrote in message

If the boat is to be docked at a slip in water, get it epoxy barrier coated and then bottom painted (do some research on the type recommended for your conditions).

Being at your latitude, it's probably a 50/50 decision, but if it were my boat, I'd consider at least bottom paint - barrier coating may be overkill.

On the other hand, it's always good insurance against the potential problems of blisters. It's like this - every boat hull comes into contact with objects in the water from time-to-time. Up here in the NE, you can hit just about anything from trees to telephone poles.

Even quality hulls use modern materials. In the past few years, manufacturers use epoxy resins and hardners which are considerably different than the polyester resins and hardners they used to use. Induction times for the epoxy resins as opposed to polyester resins can vary and are more sensitive to heat and humidity changes - even minor ones. Today's quality hulls are slightly more susceptible to blistering and water penetration - doesn't mean it will blister, just that the likelihood of it occurring it higher.

Bottom painting and barrier coating is really for keeping water, the universal solvent, out - in other words from making it through the gel coat over time. Even the best boats aren't perfect and you can get water creep and penetration even on the thickest gelcoats.

You can get color matching epoxy coatings and if it's a really good job, you won't know it's even there. I did that on both my Contenders which where Hatteras White and it looked spectacular - you really couldn't see the water line when it was cleaned.

I'd consider it if it were my boat. Compared to the cost of the boat and potential repairs, it's a cheap preventative.

Last Spring I barrier coated and bottom painted my 20 footer that was previously trailer stored. The project (4 coats [2 gallons/kits] of Interlux Interprotect Epoxy Barrier Coat and a gallon of Interlux BottomKote cost under $400, including solvents, sandpaper and fine line tape. The project did, however, require a good amount of my time, a consideration you have to take into account when comparing DIY vs marina costs for the project.

You may want to ping Chuck Gould (I believe Seattle is his home port) as he recently had his boat (a 32+ foot trawler) completely updated, including stripping the hull and applying new epoxy barrier coating and bottom paint.