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Frogwatch Frogwatch is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,163
Default Bottom cleaning vs bottom painting

Hmmm.........bottom paint with Trinidad on my 28' sailboat cost
$1250. This should last 2 years and if I am lucky 3 and being cheap
I'll stretch it to 4. After 2 years, it'll need a diver to clean it
every 8 weeks.
So, a diver cleaning the bottom every 6 weeks costs about $90 each
time. Some local kids actually do it for a lot less but they are not
too reliable. So, the diver can clean the boat 14 times for a total
of over a year and a half. If I had the diver do it only every 8
weeks in winter I could easily stretch that to two years. AND, the
diver will clean the prop AND replace the zinc.
Maybe bottom paint is a waste of money. I suspect that even 4 yr old
paint is a little effective so I guess I'll keep painting her until I
can think of a good reason to stop. For a cruise like i am on, paint
is the way to go.