WHICH bottom paint??

J

JAYROCK

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28607
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Ok gonna bite the bullet and bottom paint my boat. Which brand? She sits on the Red River in North Louisiana. This river is ALIVE with marine life. In the summer months when the water is warm the bottom and drives will look like they are covered in carpet or astro turf! A powerwasher is all that will remove it. Tired of this game! What do I use to combat this growth?
 
I only use a multi-season ablative. The boat can be out of the water for long periods without impacting it effectiveness and there is no build-up as it is designed to wear off. Three coats is usually the recommended start-up with the first coat being a different color from the following two coats. This is done so when you see the color of the first coat showing through you know its time to repaint.
 
+ 1 for Mike's recommendation. As you're starting from scratch, you may wish to consider a barrier coat before the bottom paint. Also, when using ablative paints, like Mike says most folk suggest the first coat of bottom paint be different color than the final coats - ablative paints are designed to slough off as marine life attaches to it . . . kind of a belt-and-suspenders approach to knowing when to repaint.
 
Good point about barrier coating. Having just finished that process you'll find that the most important and time consuming part of barrier coating a boat bottom is the PREPARATION!!! Plan ahead, dry the bottom out completely (like out of the water for a month or more) and clean, clean, clean! Follow the directions on the product to the "T"! In the end the peace of mind it will give you is worth the effort.
 
Pettit has a paint selector on their website. I imagine the others do also. Go to the websites and see what the paint manufacturers recommend for your boating conditions.
 
quote:
Originally posted by MikeeH

Good point about barrier coating. Having just finished that process you'll find that the most important and time consuming part of barrier coating a boat bottom is the PREPARATION!!! Plan ahead, dry the bottom out completely (like out of the water for a month or more) and clean, clean, clean! Follow the directions on the product to the "T"! In the end the peace of mind it will give you is worth the effort.

Click to expand...


I too just finished this process. Took me a mere 62 hours start to finish.
 
You should ask around and see what the other experienced locals use. The most effective paint varies by geography, water temps and salinity. You are in fresh water, it sounds like vegetation is a bigger issue than barnacles, so what works for us ocean goers may not be the best for you.
 
All good suggestions so far. I had the boat media blasted to start this season. Then I went over the entire bottom looking for the small chips in the gel coat that are inevitable, and patched them with WaterTite compound. 3 coats of barrier coat, followed by the 3 coats of Pettit SR-40 ablative (first coat red, the next 2 black).

If you call customer service at Pettit and ask for Joe, he will give you all the guidance and advice you need.

BTW, I dealt with both Interlux customer service and Pettit. They were both excellent. But my research showed the Pettit had an edge on superior performance, and it costs less to boot!

Good luck.
 
+1 on using what the local use. Every area is different.
 
Thanks for all the help. Problem with local knowledge is that THERE is little to none! All(most) boats have come out of florida or have no paint. Dont want to GUESS and not get what I NEED! The local wrench has panited some but I didnt like the long term results. One boat that came from Lake Lanier has done well. I want whatever Marine Max put on it.Or there may be something BETTER!!! Thanks again for the help!
 
Without getting into brands there are really only 2 main choices in bottom paint protection for marine growth, hard or ablative. The simplest test is, if your vessel stays in the water all year with only short haul-outs for maintenance (2 weeks or so) you can go with a hard paint with protection which can then last years. If you haul the boat for long periods you want an ablative that will wear away and need repainting every 1-3 years (depending on product quality and number of coats)but never build up to the point that you need to strip the bottom and start over.
 
I used to use multi-season ablative but found that since everyone likes a pretty water line at the start of the season, I was painting the water line and touching up every year. So I decided why pay for the multi season ablative if I was not benefiting. Cost for multi-season ablative was $239, cost for gallon of regular abalative on sale is about $99. So I use single season Petit Hydrocoat. Works great, water based, easy cleanup and goes on smooth. I do a thin coat every year and no issuess.
 
Calling Pettit is a great idea. I sat in on a presentation one of their people made and he was very informative about what was best for different applications and geographies.
 
i've found the SR additive very helpfull in brackish water.

on the barrier coat, it is a good idea to use a different color for the barrier coat than the finish coat so you can see when you are wearing thru the top coats.
 
barrier coat a must for hulls prone to blistering, i.e. cored hulls. some boats have hulls made of complete fiberglass, and barrier coat there is just waste of money.
 
I am south of you in fresh water and have used Petit with excelllent results. They were times because if storms I could not haul my boat out, yet the bottom paint held up beyond my expectations. I use Petit SR and like the high copper content it has.
 
I'll have to respectfully disagree with Alexsanr's comment about barrier coat. The fact that a hull is balsa cored or solid glass has little impact chance of moisture intrusion. While a balsa cored hull will certaily suffer more extensive damage from moisture intrusion, a FG hull can blister or even become saturated as well.
 
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