bottom paint cost?

[turkish6]

hey everyone. I know its hard to say but what would be a range to get the bottom painted. This would include preping the old paint and applying the new. We have a 36 ft boat with a 12 foot beam. The boat is in CT

[AnchorageGuy]

How about contacting the yards in your area and asking them?

[Celestialsailor]

He probably did and can't believe the quote. My suggestion is do it yourself. Find a deal on the paint buy by top brands.

[Boracay]

Unless you stand and watch them apply the paint is is very hard to have confidence in the finished result.

The yard has a vested interest in putting on the minimum of paint as quickly as possible. They will want to haul the boat, apply their own paint and put it straight back in the water.

Your interest is in getting correct paint thickness put on to a proper time schedule with all preparation done to paint manufacturers specifications. You might also want to do any necessary maintenance (anodes, blisters etc.) while the boat is out of the water.

I am being pleasantly surprised by how well my bottom paint is holding up. My observations were reinforced by a conversation with a diver on the best way to apply bottom paint for maximum longevity.

If you must get a yard to do the job I would spec it out fully and drop by to check as often as possible..

[windshadow]

only problem I see is, it is hard to find yards that will let you do the work ,and if you do find one the lay time is out of this world.

[brad pflieger]

Originally Posted by turkish6

hey everyone. I know its hard to say but what would be a range to get the bottom painted. This would include preping the old paint and applying the new. We have a 36 ft boat with a 12 foot beam. The boat is in CT

I charge 8.00 per ft to paint that bottom here in Ohio. Plus the paint and materials.
Brad
marinediscounters.com Home Page

[Sandero]

Paint technology has been changing. Bottom paints also relate to the kind of sailing you do and the waters you sail in.

I had a chat with the yard manager who is a racer, an old timer, a broker and an all around marine expert and good guy. He's in Long Island Sound.

First, any boat which is racing in those waters will have to have a diver go down at least 3x per season to remove slime. If you use an ablative paint unless you are moving A LOT, slime will coat the paint and it will not ablate. No matter what paint I use it ALWAYS accumulates slime and I sail every weekend in the season.

He recommends not more than one coat of ablative paint believing that it's all you need for a season.

He mentioned a new ablative that he says interacts with salt water and does not require movement. Sounds like it like it sloughs off sitting there, but I don't get it and don't recall which InterLux product it was.

Consider this: The costs assoicated with painting include:

Hauling and blocking
Power wash
Scraping and sanding preparation and materials
masking the waterline and materials
paint and application materials
protective gear, solvents

For a 36' boat this adds up to quite a lot if you put 2 coats of expensive paint on. Let's call the whole thing $1,200 - $1,500.

If a diver costs about $100 per scaping, you could have one down every week for more than 3 months or every other week for 6 months!

No wasted time out of the water (diver can put the zincs on too)

No added weight of paint. No fouling the water! or the land environment from prep work

No anxiety about the yard jerking you off

create work for local diver and not for Interlux or "Brewers"

get your transducers cleaned regularly and regular inspections of your bottom!

Think about it. It makes lots of sense not to paint your bottom IF it costs that kind of money and you can get a diver for the same amount.

Any comments?

[Pblais]

Once cleaned and prepared I would expect 4 hours of labor to apply two coats. Two coats of decent ablative can last two years here and we don't haul in the winter. If you haul out in the winter that approach won't work as ablative does not winter on the hard. It may require as little as 2 gallons or as much as 3. My yard will allow me to buy 1/2 gallon. Which is nice since it does not always work out to whole gallons. I just repainted our 36 ft x 12 ft boat so your numbers would be similar depending on hull shape. Add charges for haul, block and power wash. It's always a good idea to make a haul out list of jobs since you don't want to have that expense any more than you need to.

As for divers I have running gear done monthly during the season and I don't have the bottom cleaned for $30 a time. My bottom paint bill was about $1200. Using this approach I only haul out every other year. No painting at all would require diving more than once per month in the summer here and would require diving all year long. Buying a boat lift would be cheaper.

You local water conditions and water temperature can make a lot of difference. I think I would work out a schedule based on local sailors and seeing what actually works. I don't think one approach works everywhere.

[AnchorageGuy]

What you pay for a yard in CT is going to be vastly different than what you pay a yard in FLA or NZ or lots of other places. So only those that have had it done in your area, or the local yards, can answer your question.

[Sandero]

I have an invention for a boat scrubbing robot, but I need some capital... any takers?

[fstbttms]

While YMMV in your location, here in the moderate fouling of the Bay Area, any hull that has no anti fouling will be essentially uncleanable in a relatively short time. Even weekly cleanings on an unpainted hull will not keep up with the growth. And it's not that you'll have a shag carpet growing down there but rather the growth that does occur will be next to impossible to remove. Again, YMMV but as a professional hull cleaner I do not recommend keeping any boat unpainted in even brackish water.