Bottom job blues:(

[Clipper4730]

So had the old girl hauled a few days ago for a bottom painting at Charleston City Boatyard. After the haul and pressure wash it has become evident that we need to take it down to the barrier or gelcoat for a brand new shiny bottom. Wasn't anticipating this but it is what it is. Got the estimate from the yard and about crapped myself, just under $10,000.

Thought this was a bit excessive but don't really know. They want to soda blast down to the gelcoat, new barrier then new hard paint on top of that. In a nutshell $4,615 for the blast, $1,925 for the barrier coat, $2,845 for the hard paint, taxes etc total bill of $9,644.

Got a few loose estimates from a yard in St Mary's Ga and Holland Marine in green cove springs both around $5k but they sand not blast.

Debating just doing myself. The yard it is in allows diy work, just heard stories about how big a PITA is it. I'm not one to shy away from some hard labor am in good shape and fairly young(44) and maybe get a little satisfaction from taking care of business myself.

Thoughts

Thanks again in advance

Btw the admiral and I had already prepared ousprselves for around$8 grand and we're not terribly happy about that either

[cabo_sailor]

I'm lacking a bit of info. What specifically makes you think the hull needs blasting? A shiny bottom is nice for racing but IMO not so important for cruising.

The costs for barrier coat also seem a bit high. How many coats, how many gallons?

Same for bottom paint. How many coats, how many gallons?

Offhand I would suspect a major savings even if you did have them blast the hull, but you applied barrier coat and bottom paint. Also, why are you applying barrier coat? Do you have blisters?

In short, think you can save $$ but a wee bit more info might help.

Rich


Edit: A 50 ft Benetau in CO? I did all the above mentioned work on a Morgan 32. 5 coats of barrier coat and one coat of bottom paint in FL in Aug. I was solo and liked to have died. Next day two more coats of bottom paint and I was done.

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[Clipper4730]

I guess shiny was not the correct term. Let's use new bottom.
Don't think it has blisters and the service manager didn't seem to think it does either. it's only ten years old and has been lightly used and stored out of the water during the winter in Maine most of its life, not sure why they want to take it down to the gelcoat. The paint is chipping pretty badly and it appears that the layer under the bottom paint is the same color, flag blue, as top sides. Trying to figure out if this is the awl grip top sides or a tinted barrier coat. Was told that if we just sanded the flaking areas it would just start flaking again within a few months.

It includes 2 coats of interlux barrier
2 coats of bottom paint with an extra coat at the waterline

Just wondering if
A-I'm getting ripped off
B-Is it worth the headache of trying to do it myself or
C-Take the boat to a less expensive yard taking into account I'm out the 600 bucks for the haul and pressure wash

Thanks
Will

[Clipper4730]

It was a hell of a sail down the Colorado touched the bottom a few times.

Just out of curiosity how long did it take you to sand your bottom and how deep did ya go.

Thanks

[model 10]

I think you should jump on the Holland Marine price. They do nice work. Soda blasting is like some guy sanding your boat with a 1" diameter sanding/blasting tool. It's impossible to get it even.
Living in Green Cove Springs is another matter. A bike will work for light stuff but sometimes you will need a car so there is an Enterprise car rental in town.

[barnakiel]

Pricey. I recently blasted primed and painted a 70 er for about 6k.

b.

[zeehag]

why do they wanna take it down to gelcoat despite already beeing barrier'd????
i think i woup dbitch about that . overkill if no blisters.
good luck.

[Drift Woods]

Clippper,

A ten year old Bennie should have an outer coat of vinylester. The hole point in using the epoxy base vinylester was to stop blisters and the need for a barrier coat.

I'm going with answer. A

[laika]

Sounds a bit crazy to me, just to address a flakey paint job? And wouldn't the hull then have to be dried out for a number of months prior to barrier coating?

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Guy

I think you should jump on the Holland Marine price. They do nice work. Soda blasting is like some guy sanding your boat with a 1" diameter sanding/blasting tool. It's impossible to get it even.
Living in Green Cove Springs is another matter. A bike will work for light stuff but sometimes you will need a car so there is an Enterprise car rental in town.

I think you mean sand blasting and not soda blasting? Soda blasting leaves a very smooth surface.

Mark

[model 10]

Originally Posted by colemj

I think you mean sand blasting and not soda blasting? Soda blasting leaves a very smooth surface.

Mark

Not so much on my boat. There were low spots everywhere. The texture is great but the low spots were not.

[Cheechako]

Then again, you could just drive down the road and throw $100 bills out the window.
-Let's see, $4615 for Soda blast. If you hire a worker at $15 an hour to sand... that's about 308 hours, or a little less than 8 forty hour weeks.
-$1925 for the barrier coat? How much is a gallon of epoxy now days? $100? $150? You can roll on 3 coats of epoxy in a day if there are two of you.
- Ditto for the bottom paint $1800+ ... really?
That's a yard you need to get out of fast....
I'd wait until next time and use a yard that allows you to hire your own people if you really want to take it all of and epoxy it.

[The Way]

I doubt you'd be allowed to soda-blast or sand-blast yourself. In most places you have to completely enclose the bottom. Which means you have to wear a full suit with pressure air to breath. (Probably wise in any case if you value your lungs.)

Green Cove Springs -- Enterprise there is expensive because it's a small town. Get Barron from GCS boatyard to take you to St Augustine if you need a car for more than a few days. It will be much cheaper. (Barron runs a private taxi service, cheap.)

Fair winds,
Jack

[garrobito]

..pricey.. suggest to do yourself.. it's gonna take time, sweat and pain but save you a lot of $$$.. if you go down to the fiber, user coppercoat for paint..it's good for 10 years..

[Dulcesuenos]

Agree , should be less, our neighbors just had a 40 sodablasted, 3 coats epoxy, 2 coats bottom paint, and al zinc's for 5k in Fl. I will say we were going to sand ours down to gelcoat and it was a major pita. Took 2 experienced guys 22 hours to do it. Paid 2k, they sanded, cleaned, taped, applied our barrier coat and 2 coats of paint.

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