Do i need to antifoul?

[Warpa1]

I am for the 1st time going to be mooring my boat on a tidal river with two high tides a day, when the tide is out the boat will be on soft mud. The boat will get regular use and will be stored on the trailor when October arrives.
I will also be using my exdendable handle auto cleaning brush to keep most growth at bay. So do i really need to anti foul if i can properly clean the hull in the autum?

This is the hull at the moment, the nearest antifoul paint colour i can get is shark grey but will not be possible to apply it on the trailor.

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/1016/picture063ko.jpg

[seapuppy]

well...it really depends on the water your in...I'm assuming your in salt water....then definitely your going to want to have the bottom paint on....this will stop the growth of algae but also keep the blisters from forming on the paint.....so...definitely in my opinion...


SP

[Warpa1]

Ill be far enough up river to more than avoid salt water. If i were to antifoul do i just paint the stuff i have on the hull or do you need a primer of some sort?

[biggerseagar]

For what you are going to have to do to prepare your bottom to be painted, sand gelcoat first coat, second coat, clean every season, repaint yada yada yada. That is a nice shinny gelcoat that you have on your boat! Just take it out of the water once a week and clean in. See if that works for you before you spent all that money.

It will cost you a couple grand to get your bottom painted by a marina yard, put boat on blocks, sand bottom and then a first coat and second coat. Try it for the first season and see what happens. See if you can get by with once a week or ever two weeks cleaning. 2 grand is alot of boat gas!

Roger

[Warpa1]

That sounds like a plan, they lift and pressure wash the hull for around £60 I guess i could play it by sight and keep an eye on the hull. maybe i could do a lift and clean once a month as i want the hull to stay looking like it is for a 14 year old boat

[seapuppy]

if your going with that plan...then watch for blisters...if you start getting that on the hull...then your going to want to change your plans and bottom paint..


SP

[capav8r]

I finally bit the bullet and did mine this spring. Here is the process I used: I built a couple of stands out of 2x12's and 6x6 posts in order to get the boat off the bunks. I copied the contour of the hull at the sling points and transferred to the 2x12's, sandwiched 2 2x6 posts between the 2x12's. I then removed the bunks to give myself some room to work. I did this in my driveway with the trailer still under the boat, but the boat was actually off the trailer. I followed the guidelines provided by Blue Water Marine Paint. First, I cleaned the bottom to completely spotless-Barkeeper's Friend worked well. Then I used a dewaxer-which is essentially lacquer thinner-to remove all wax. Next step was to sand the gelcoat with 80 grit just enough to knock the shine off and give a somewhat rough surface, then wiped with dewaxer again. This was followed by 4 coats of epoxy primer. According to Blue Water this is what prevents blistering, not the anti fouling paint. Next came 2 coats of anti fouling on the bottom and a 3rd coat at the water line. One rule I have heard many places, but rarely see followed is to make sure you do not apply a copper containing anti fouling paint within 2" of anything metal, like your drive, trim tabs, through hulls, etc due to galvanic corrosion. I did apply the epoxy right up to them, just not the anti fouling paint. I also did not paint over the transducer with the anti fouling. I have not heard one way or another on that one but figured that the metallic content might disrupt the operation of it. I did put the epoxy over it and the depth finder seems to be working normally. That's what I did, hopefully it works well. Time will tell.

[biggerseagar]

Good call , plus 1 about not painting right up to the outdrives. Most do a contour painting of atleast an inch or two around the drives. Also use a different color if you use an ablative paint. Use one color for your hard shell and then another color for the outside coat and then you know when it is getting thin and you need to recoat.

Lots of work.............

Roger

[shrew]

I'd paint. I'd buy a barrier coat and paint designed by the same manufacturer to work together. I'd apply the barrier coat as per the manufatcurers instructions, then I'd apply the paint as per the manufacturers instructions. It will be more time consuming and costly, however it will be done right and you will have little to no headaches moving forward. If the water level is impacted by the tide, then you are in brackish water. It may be fresh at low tide, and fed by fresh water, but the salt water is raising the levels at high tide and there is salt water mixed in.

[Warpa1]

We have desided to keep on top of cleaning it if we can, we had a marine engineer come out to service the IB/OB and he knew the boat as he had worked on it before and the previous owner treated it as his baby so money was no object. He said wee should try to stay clear of the antifoul as the hull is so good and helps resale.

We will hopefully be in the financial position to fit ultrasonic antifoul in the next month, so will have a clean hull and no paint.