Hi,

I've recently bought a steel hulled houseboat in an area I want to
move to, with the hopes of later selling it and getting one with an
aluminum hull. I got a great deal on it, but feel sure that the bottom
is in bad shape. The previous owner said it was pulled and inspected
5 years ago, and found to have no rust on it at all. But I don't believe
it was treated then. It's in a fresh water lake. How bad can I expect
it to be now, if it really did have no rust 5 years ago?

People have told me various versions of how to coat the bottom.
The simplest was to sand it down one day, coat with marine primer
the next day, add a second coat the next day, put it back on the
trailer and treat the spots that were on the blocks the next day,
put it back in the water the next day.
Another version was to sand it down, treat with marine primer,
sand that and treat again...about 3 coats. Sand final coat of primer,
and add about 3 coats of ablative paint, sanding between coatings.

One person told me that the ablative paint releases copper oxide,
which causes the paint to break down over time, but also prevents
algae from forming rust somehow. Since I won't try to coat the bottom
until next summer when we can be more certain of 50° weather
necessary for curing of coating materials, he suggested I have the
boat pulled and preasure washed for a few hundred dollars. He said
that would remove the algae that's built up over the last five years,
so the bottom would deteriorate much less in the next few months
because there would be less algae to work on it. Is that worth the
money and effort to do it? Are pulling and re-launching likely to
result in leaks?

Is algae really that harmful? Is ablative paint the best to use?
I really just want something to treat it and last for a couple of years,
since I'm hoping to sell it when I get established in a steady job in
that area. I don't want to spend money on the bottom of a boat I
don't want to keep, when it could be put into a boat that I will want
to keep. Then again, I don't want to sell someone something that's
going to sink. Right now it has no leaks, btw.

Thanks for any help or suggestions!
David

wrote:

I've recently bought a steel hulled houseboat in an area I want to
move to, with the hopes of later selling it and getting one with an
aluminum hull. I got a great deal on it, but feel sure that the bottom
is in bad shape. The previous owner said it was pulled and inspected
5 years ago, and found to have no rust on it at all. But I don't believe
it was treated then. It's in a fresh water lake. How bad can I expect
it to be now, if it really did have no rust 5 years ago?


The only way to tell is to get a survey, preferably by a surveyor that
knows steel. You'll need that for insurance, anyway, so choose someone
on their preferred list.

Tanzers have iron keels, which will rust in fresh though salt is worse.
We've found that POR-15 is the best "primer", with Rustlok the second
choice. Keeps rust away for, as far as we can tell, decades. One coat
seems sufficient. POR doesn't require going to bright metal, only
removing chunks of rust, a big plus.

Ablative or hard bottom paint is a judgment call. Where we are, I've
switched from hard (which worked really well) to a top-rated ablative
(which works as well, but doesn't build up as much and allows us to skip
a year or two of repaints.) In fresh water, I'd probably use a very
different paint -- the one that most everyone else at the dock is using.

"Later" is *such* a subjective term. We were acquired by Xan when we
were looking for a boat that would serve us for 5 or so years. After a
decade, she still meets our requirements for 5 or so years. Doing a
proper job doesn't cost that much more, can cost less in the medium and
long run, and can improve the selling price.

I've never heard of algae (or hard growth) creating rust, BUT rust
attracts growth more than bottom paint.

Simply pulling and relaunching won't by itself cause leaks unless they
were about to happen anyway.

In your situation, I'd probably wait until spring, though if I could
combine the survey haul and some of the work, I would.

'Course, if you rarely intend to move the boat or something like that,
the answers change drastically.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

There is a tar coating for steel houseboats. Friend did their pontoons on a
new construction houseboat.
Bill

"Jere Lull" wrote in message
...
wrote:

I've recently bought a steel hulled houseboat in an area I want to
move to, with the hopes of later selling it and getting one with an
aluminum hull. I got a great deal on it, but feel sure that the bottom
is in bad shape. The previous owner said it was pulled and inspected
5 years ago, and found to have no rust on it at all. But I don't believe
it was treated then. It's in a fresh water lake. How bad can I expect
it to be now, if it really did have no rust 5 years ago?


The only way to tell is to get a survey, preferably by a surveyor that
knows steel. You'll need that for insurance, anyway, so choose someone
on their preferred list.

Tanzers have iron keels, which will rust in fresh though salt is worse.
We've found that POR-15 is the best "primer", with Rustlok the second
choice. Keeps rust away for, as far as we can tell, decades. One coat
seems sufficient. POR doesn't require going to bright metal, only
removing chunks of rust, a big plus.

Ablative or hard bottom paint is a judgment call. Where we are, I've
switched from hard (which worked really well) to a top-rated ablative
(which works as well, but doesn't build up as much and allows us to skip
a year or two of repaints.) In fresh water, I'd probably use a very
different paint -- the one that most everyone else at the dock is using.

"Later" is *such* a subjective term. We were acquired by Xan when we
were looking for a boat that would serve us for 5 or so years. After a
decade, she still meets our requirements for 5 or so years. Doing a
proper job doesn't cost that much more, can cost less in the medium and
long run, and can improve the selling price.

I've never heard of algae (or hard growth) creating rust, BUT rust
attracts growth more than bottom paint.

Simply pulling and relaunching won't by itself cause leaks unless they
were about to happen anyway.

In your situation, I'd probably wait until spring, though if I could
combine the survey haul and some of the work, I would.

'Course, if you rarely intend to move the boat or something like that,
the answers change drastically.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

wrote in message
...


I've recently bought a steel hulled houseboat in an area I want to
move to, with the hopes of later selling it and getting one with an
aluminum hull. I got a great deal on it, but feel sure that the bottom
is in bad shape. The previous owner said it was pulled and inspected
5 years ago,


I hope you got a REALLY good deal on it. The recommended procedure in
buying such a boat is to have it hauled out and a survey done before you
conclude the deal. If it has been sitting for 5 years, the bottom could be
in terrible shape.

It is common for a steel hull to get pin holes. If the surrounding
material is good, these can be welded up and the hull is fine. It is also
possible that an entire area to be corroded away such that all the material
is thin. It might be fine as long as it is tied up in the slip, but get the
boat out and work it and the thin area can fail. This isn't just welding up
a pin hole, it is replacing a section of steel. If that "section" is the
entire bottom it can quickly become too expensive.

In my area, it costs about $10 a foot of boat length to have the boat hauled
out. It costs about that much again for the bottom paint. A lot of this
stuff they work with is toxic so they tend to throw all sorts of additional
"environmental" fees on top of that. If there is repair work to do you will
be paying by the hour. Depending on the type of paint and weather the boat
may need to sit for a few days before it is put back into the water. Some
yards also charge a daily storage fee while your boat sits in the yard,
although most give you a few days as part of the haulout.

On a fiberglass boat, the bottom paint is primarialy for anti-fouling
purposes. It will last a year or two and then it needs to be reapplied.
Houseboats tend to use a really thick tar like coating that is also meant to
prevent rust. I am not aware of there being any correlation between an alge
growth and accelerated rusting other than having alge is a sure sign that
any antifouling paint that used to be there is no longer effective.

Are pulling and re-launching likely to result in leaks?

YES!

Sitting in the water, the weight of the boat is distributed along the entire
bottom. The process of getting it out of the water and setting it on blocks
will concentrate the weight in just a couple of spots. This will tend to
flex the boat in a way it hasn't been flexed in 5 years. This may cause all
sorts of things. It is not unusual to have the hull flex and cause issues
inside the cabin.

The pressure wash will obviously blast away at the hull. If there is a weak
spot, this could cause it to rupture.

I would fully expect the repair yard to inspect the hull. The way you
inspect a hull is you get a hammer and start banging on it (it is a bit
un-nerving the fist time you see someone beating on your pride and joy with
a hammer!). As he goes along, you hear BANG-BANG-BANG.. This is good. If
it goes BANG- BANG - thud...... this is a bad thing. The process of
inspecting a hull can turn a number of weak spots into holes.

My suggestion is to NOT pull the boat out if you are not ready/able to
complete the necessary work.


Rod