existing bottom paint on purchased boat

D

ddurand

Member
Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2001
RO Number
5015
Messages
837
I am buying a boat that is docked in salt water and is bottom painted. The bottom looked very clean on a short haul. How can I determine what the current bottom paint is whether or not I need to strip and paint next spring or just paint over or do nothing??

Previous owner cannot remember.
 
What kind of boat? Are you going to keep it in the water or take it out..trailer, lift, etc?
 
Its a 27' sport cruiser with I/O. The goal is to dock in salt water. Thats if I can find a slip.
 
Its a 27' sport cruiser with I/O. The goal is to dock in salt water. Thats if I can find a slip.
 
Ablative paint easily rubs off when it’s wet with water. If you could have rubbed it during the short haul, that would have been the time. Why not just ask the seller or have the yard/broker ask the seller what he has been doing? If you could have noticed any painted over chips on the bottom, that can give you an idea of a bunch of layers on the bottom. That would indicate lots of hard paint too.
 
Put a coat of ablative on, and you will be fine. Ablative nicely covers a prior coat of ablative, or it can cover a “hard paint”.. Hard paint should only go over a prior coat of hard paint, not on top of an ablative. So if you can’t find out what is on there, just go with an ablative.

No reason to blast off a clean coating. On the other hand, if there are multiple layers, peeling away, and it looks like crap - now is as good a time as any to start over.
 
OK, sounds reasonable. How does one paint the bottom when its on a trailer. Pay a marina to do it when its hoisted?
 
Trailer is tough, blocks are easier. But if there is already paint on there, you don’t really need to hit every spot.

Of course it’s always easier to pay to have it done - but the better the bottom looks now, the easier it is to do yourself. The painting is not bad, it is the scraping and sanding away the loose stuff which completely sucks. That’s why I switched to ablative back when I kept my boat in the water.

WHat color paint is on there now? Any chance you can put a different color ablative on top? That’s what I did with my boat, so when I hauled it every year, it was easy to see the few spots that needed more paint - because the black ablative was gone, showing the blue coat underneath. Most years, I only had to add a little paint around the water line, rest of the boat was still covered. This avoided the dreaded build up and peeling you see on so many boats.
 
So the bottom paint is in pretty good shape except for a few minor worn spots likely from lifting straps. So I can touch up the spots and good to go next spring? How would I know if its s single or multi season ablative bottom paint thats currently on there?
 
If i was in your situation ( not knowing what’s on there now) , I would do it myself, hitting every spot I could get to on the trailer, with a multi season ablative. Then starting next year, only touch up where needed.
 
Why wouldn't everyone buy multi season ablative bottom paint rather than single season ablative bottom paint? Unless a lot more expensive than single season.
 
quote:
Originally posted by ddurand

Why wouldn't everyone buy multi season ablative bottom paint rather than single season ablative bottom paint? Unless a lot more expensive than single season.

Click to expand...


Price. Some people cannot afford the more expensive paint.
 
If you paint it in the straps, it'll be launched before the paint is dry.
 
If in blocks and stands how do you get the areas under the blocks and stands painted. If on a travel lift you have the areas under the straps and waiting long enough to dry. If on a trailer you need to crawl around on your back painting it as best you can. I am too old to climb around under my trailer.

There must be a solution.
 
quote:
Originally posted by ddurand

If in blocks and stands how do you get the areas under the blocks and stands painted. If on a travel lift you have the areas under the straps and waiting long enough to dry. If on a trailer you need to crawl around on your back painting it as best you can. I am too old to climb around under my trailer.

There must be a solution.

Click to expand...


You move the blocks and stands.
 
You don’t have to cover every square inch under water with new paint. If you are on blocks, you have two blocks at the transom, a couple more midship, and a few under the keel. A planing hull, that gets any use, is in the water for six months at the temperatures we get in these parts isn’t getting any growth on a painted keel, even if the biocide is gone. Would be nice to get the other spots where the blocks are - on a new hull might be worth worrying about. But if there’s paint on it, I would not be concerned. Worst case, the paint fails, and you have a few inches that need to be scraped. Not a big problem.

Now if you are in Florida, and about to drop your boat in for a year or two, by all means let in hang in the slip a few hours after you hit the final spots. That being said, if you have no interest in crawling around under the trailer, pay a yard to paint the bottom. Unless you are going to block it yourself, which is pretty easy for a little boat but I imagine is a bit of work for a 27 footer, pay the man.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top