Longest Lasting, Best Bottom Paint on the Market for Faster Boats

[nelly]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

Quick question
If all that’s growing is slime won’t that come off an ablative pair once you start moving along?

Unfortunately not, but if it's just slime it is also pretty easy to clean off. Or just ignore it...

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by odonnellryan

Unfortunately not, but if it's just slime it is also pretty easy to clean off. Or just ignore it...

I just ignore that stuff. (If it even forms)

Barnacles and seaweed colonies are the ones I need to keep off.

Plus, I’m a stickler for having the correct waterline with bottom paint going above it. So very few issues.

Any other brands recommended?

[Zanshin]

Next time you drive your car after it has rained, watch the drops on your hood as you accelerate. Even at highway speeds there will still be beads on the surface. This is the "boundary layer" and it is similar on a boat - that's why the slime won't just slough off when you sail.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

Quick question
If all that’s growing is slime won’t that come off an ablative pair once you start moving along?

Yes and no. When we're running at our usual slow cruise (6.5 - 7 kts), slime doesn't ablate off the paint and needs to be scrubbed off. If we jump up on plane and do 17 kts for a bit, it does ablate some of the slime off (particularly at the bow), but not all of it. If we ran at that speed more frequently or for longer periods it might remove more of the slime, but realistically, unless we were doing that a few times a week, it wouldn't be enough to avoid the need to periodically do some manual slime removal.

[fstbttms]

Also know that if the slime isn’t coming off, the paint is not ablating

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Also know that if the slime isn’t coming off, the paint is not ablating

Exactly, which is why it's important to periodically wipe the slime off if it's accumulating and not coming off to keep the paint exposed.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

Exactly, which is why it's important to periodically wipe the slime off if it's accumulating and not coming off to keep the paint exposed.

Bingo

[Nicholson58]

Why not copper coat for a fast cat? No ablation and clean with a nylon scrub pad.

Your cruising ground impacts the paint choice. Some are better in tropical, others, cold water. Some are not tolerant of drying out or winter storage.

At boat shows you can usually find most of the paint reps close together and get a lot of quest answered.

[SailingHarmonie]

Originally Posted by Chotu

On leading edges on a faster boat, the ablative paint is basically gone pretty quickly. I’m down to bare fiberglass currently on my leading edges. My bows have absolutely nothing. Even the primer is gone. It’s just straight fiberglass.

How many miles do you have on this paint traveling at "high speed"? My understanding (which might be totally off base) is that you have only motored around a few hundred miles at modest speeds, and your whole bottom is currently heavily fouled.

How old is this paint? It is not just motion that affects ablative paints, it is age as the ablative material absorbs water and softens. There are also ablative paints in various formulations, some more suitable for higher speed boats.

If your paint IS wearing off after a few hundred miles, and is a year or two old, I would suggest that you are seeing the result of either overly aggresive cleaning, OR poor application technique.

We use an ablative paint, that we are really happy with. It's performance is excellent, and it's life is consistent with our haul out schedule for other maintenance.

Two coats of paint, and an extra on the waterline and leading edges of the keel and rudder skeg keep us spotlessly clean for the 5000 miles or so we travel in a year. Never do we wear down to bare gelcoat. We might not sail at 15 knots, but we do 8 and 9 pretty regularly, so I guess that puts us in the "medium speed" category.

There is kind of a misconception about the reason for using ablative paints. It is not really the need to expose fresh biocide, although that does happen a little. The reason to use an ablative paint is to avoid paint buildup over time, and the maintenance effort and costs needed to periodically strip down multiple applications of hard paint. If that's not important to you, then a hard paint will likely be your better long term choice. It's a difficult balance between getting a paint that sloughs off JUST enough to avoid long term build up, but not leave so fast the bottom is exposed before the biocide wears out.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Why not copper coat for a fast cat? No ablation and clean with a nylon scrub pad.

Your cruising ground impacts the paint choice. Some are better in tropical, others, cold water. Some are not tolerant of drying out or winter storage.

At boat shows you can usually find most of the paint reps close together and get a lot of quest answered.

I don’t know why not.

I know some people who have it and it seems to be working for them.

My boat does not come out of the water so that’s one thing. No dry storage. Ever.

And the old boats where I would get three years out of the Pettit were ablative with no maintenance in the northeast USA. 3 straight years. 36 months.

It definitely needed a new paint job at the end of the three years but, I got that.

Isn’t it extremely tricky to put that copper coat on? I always read stories about people that don’t like it but I think it’s because it wasn’t put on correctly or something. There’s a lot of controversy around it. I don’t really want to be a guinea pig. But I do know people that have it and it’s working. So it’s confusing.

What do you know about the stuff?

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Chotu

I don’t really want to be a guinea pig.

You won't be a guinea pig. CopperCoat (and other copper-loaded epoxy products) have been around for years and years. Opinions on it seem to run hot and cold. Either you love it or you hate it. I fall into the latter camp. I believe that it has lousy anti fouling properties and would never recommend it to anybody.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

How many miles do you have on this paint traveling at "high speed"? My understanding (which might be totally off base) is that you have only motored around a few hundred miles at modest speeds, and your whole bottom is currently heavily fouled.

How old is this paint? It is not just motion that affects ablative paints, it is age as the ablative material absorbs water and softens. There are also ablative paints in various formulations, some more suitable for higher speed boats.

If your paint IS wearing off after a few hundred miles, and is a year or two old, I would suggest that you are seeing the result of either overly aggresive cleaning, OR poor application technique.

We use an ablative paint, that we are really happy with. It's performance is excellent, and it's life is consistent with our haul out schedule for other maintenance.

Two coats of paint, and an extra on the waterline and leading edges of the keel and rudder skeg keep us spotlessly clean for the 5000 miles or so we travel in a year. Never do we wear down to bare gelcoat. We might not sail at 15 knots, but we do 8 and 9 pretty regularly, so I guess that puts us in the "medium speed" category.

There is kind of a misconception about the reason for using ablative paints. It is not really the need to expose fresh biocide, although that does happen a little. The reason to use an ablative paint is to avoid paint buildup over time, and the maintenance effort and costs needed to periodically strip down multiple applications of hard paint. If that's not important to you, then a hard paint will likely be your better long term choice. It's a difficult balance between getting a paint that sloughs off JUST enough to avoid long term build up, but not leave so fast the bottom is exposed before the biocide wears out.

I have not been traveling at high speed yet. 6-7 knots. Regular speed.

But I will be traveling at high-speed. 15-20kn as soon as I’m done the rig.

Paint is old as the hills. It’s probably 7 years old now? It has about 3000+ nautical miles on it.

My whole bottom is currently fouled because I didn’t need to use any paint where I was last storing the boat. It was in freshwater. Tropical freshwater. And there were these weird fish that you could hear scratching on the outside of the hull continuously with their mouths as they ate everything off the boat before it could really take hold. Nonstop sounds. My old helper down there had to sleep with a fan on to drown out the constant scraping sounds. It was perfectly clean when I left the fresh water. They kept it absolutely 100% spotless. Greatest fish ever.

Only once I left that area with the old paint did I have issues.

And you’d be way off on the mileage. It was about 1200 miles just to go to the last couple riggers. I’ve been out of the freshwater for 6 months and had one bottom scrub by a diver.

Marinas able to haul a 25ft beam are few and far between. Was looking at 3 month wait times.

My paint wore off from 3000+ miles of water flowing past it. It did not flake or whatever. My application was perfect just like everything else I did with the boat. I’m a perfectionist I don’t know if you realize that. So flawless application of extra epoxy, primer for the paint system and bottom paint. There is still plenty of it left. Just not on the areas with high flow rates.

But it’s old and tired.

And that’s quite an interesting topic about the ablative paint. You are correct. There is a lot of misconception if what you are saying is accurate. I had always been taught that it was to get fresh active paint to the surface. And a side benefit was that you had less on the boat. But yeah I don’t really like hard paint. It doesn’t seem to hold up as well over time. Too many scrubbings involved.

How do you make that entire post and not name the paint that you are happy with?

[SailingHarmonie]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Also know that if the slime isn’t coming off, the paint is not ablating

Another reason that "slime" is important to control: Barnacle larvae will not settle down on a clean, hard surface. They use the smell/taste of the existing biofilm to tell them that the surface is a good one to make their forever home. This makes sense, since a larval barnacle can target a particular population mix of algae, bacteria, etc to tell it that the conditions in the area are good for its own future growth. If you can keep the slime off, you keep the barnacles off.

While "slime" is in and of itself not a serious issue around boat performance, it is a symptom of failing paint, and it is the beginning of the process of "hard" fouling.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

While "slime" is in and of itself not a serious issue around boat performance, it is a symptom of failing paint...

Not true. New bottoms should receive their first cleaning when biofilm becomes noticeable. In my area, that is typically around 90 days after splashing. I feel confident in saying that the paint at that point is years away from "failing."

[Kd9truck]

I’ve tried ablative first because that was what everyone else was doing, it was terrible. I tried a “semi-hard” Interlux micron extra or ultra, the one that’s now discontinued. I went 3 seasons on that with 2 coats and kept the vessel wet stored off season.
From opinions on this forum I am now on petit Trinidad pro, I swam the boat the other day and it feels good, but it is just the beginning of the growing season for me. That’s my 3 cents on paint.
I do have a fair bit of experience applying paint and from my point of view broadly 50% of the job is the application. I have been putting 2 coats (hard, soft, or semi hard paints) on the leading edges and 2 coats on the rudder. And in my observations this has been worth it.
I roll the leading edges heavy as well.
So what is the leading edges you might ask?
Just my opinion based on nothing scientific the whole front of the vessel ahead of the keel, the whole of the keel, and as mentioned the rudder.

Side note: I sailed a vessel with a fresh CopperCoat and it was fast but I think this product only works well in some places. It is billed as a ten year hard paint, or atleast it is bragged about haveing a 10 year life. I ruled it out because it would have been very expensive even if I did the labor and it a two person (minimum ) job.
Also it’s epoxy, both the primer and the CopperCoat.

Cheers Chotu.