"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
anews.com...
I had my fine, blue water sailing yacht hauled last week and applied three
gallons on Trinidad Pro bottom paint. It amounts to six coats on the
high-wear areas along the LWL, rudder and keel and four coats everywhere
else.

That's exactly the format we used (Worst Marine's best ablative) when we
did Flying Pig.

It's lasted nearly 4 years; the reveal coat (did half in blue, half in
black) is showing in most places other than the waterline, but it
certainly did the job on a long-term basis.

New bottom job coming up this spring when we return to the states for the
wedding...


My preference is the hard epoxy-based Trinidad because I can scrub and scrub
it with a scrub brush and it doesn't come off but slowly. I got almost ten
years out of my last bottom job with Trinidad so if I get the same out of
this one I won't have any complaints. My boat's small enough that I can get
the bottom scrubbed squeaky clean in only a couple hours using a scrub brush
and snorkel and fins.

I feel that since haul-outs are rather expensive and quite disruptive of the
daily routine doing as few as possible makes sense. Thus the many layers of
paint. When it gets down to the brown barrier coat then I know it's time for
another bottom job. The brown barrier coat was necessary as I used to use
Tri-Lux (tributyl tin) which is now banned and no longer available and it
used some sort of carrier paint that Trinidad would raise and bubble and not
adhere to. The barrier coat is compatible with the Tri-Lux and the Trinidad.
It sure was less work than scraping off all the Tri-Lux.

There's a good yard in Key Largo that let's you live aboard and do your own
work. Very laid back and reasonable prices. If you remember where the
Mandalay is when you anchored there in the Harbor near Rodriguez Key, it's
just to the north of it. The only hitch for you would be the requirement to
go in at high tide with local knowledge as the channel into the yard has
shoaled so with six-feet of draft the only time you can get in and out is at
high tide.


Wilbur Hubbard