BoatBanter.com - Need for bottom paint??

I am somewhat surprised at this thread. Are you guys talking about
sal****er boats or freashwater also? My brother owns a 1972 Glastron
18' Tri-Hull that my dad bought new. That boat has been in the Ohio or
Little Kanawa rivers for a minimum of 3 to 4 months per year every
year since 1972. It has never had any barrier coats or anti-fouling
coats on the bottom. It is just taken out every fall, scrubbed to take
off the fairly light coat of scummy stuff and then acid wiped
(Wal-Mart Hull Cleaner) to take off the brown stain and bring it back
to white - followed by a wax job. I always assumed that bottom
painting was something done in salt water environments. Don't get me
wrong, I am not saying it shouldn't be done in freshwater, I am just
acknowledging my ignorance on the subject. My own boat is usually only
in the water 2 or 3 days at a time at best except the first two weeks
in july when it is in for the whole two weeks. It is not barrier or
bottom coated.

Dave Hall

On 3 Nov 2006 08:32:43 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:

dene wrote:

Find out of Regal used vinylester resin in the layup. If they did, you
probably don't need a barrier coat.

I don't get down to boat on the Columbia, so I need to ask whether
Kalama is still in the tidal section of the river. If it is, bottom
paint will be particularly important.

If Kalama is further upstream, there probably still isn't enough steady
current to prevent bottom funk from getting a grip.

Do this, and convince yourself one way or the other: Go down to your
new slip, and take a look at the floats and pilings below the
waterline. If you don't find any plants or animals growing on the
pilings, etc, (a very unlikely result of your inspection), you probably
won't collect any hair or mollusks on your hull stored in the same
location. On the other hand, if the local underwater flora and fauna
are hardy enough to live on a scummy old creosote pile they will have
problem migrating to a nice, clean fibergalss hull. In many cases, the
bottom paint isn't so much about keeping stuff from attaching as it is
sloughing stuff off underway.

$1400 is a whole lot of money, even for a boatyard, to charge for
painting a 24-foot boat.
Ask around about "winter specials", it isn't unusual to get bottom
paint in the winter time for
$20-30 a foot, including haulout. Or, pay for the haulout, wreck a set
of clothes, expose yourself to some truly nasty chemicals, and paint it
yourself for maybe $8-10 a foot. Good bottom paint is very expensive.
The labor required to scrape away an entire zoo with a firm grip on a
hull that should have been painted is even more expensive.