Skipping bottom paint this year?

[AiniA]

In the Caribbean I found that a weight belt really helped when doing the bottom with a hookah system. Also sturdy gloves so you don't end up with lots of small cuts from tiny barnacles.

[David Mathis]

Ablative paints usually don’t need more than a touch up. Applying a fresh coat every year will quickly lead to a build up problem due to the thickness of the coating. When the paint gets really thick, it starts coming off In chunks. I have a powerboat which cruises at about 24 knots so the ablative coating wears off more rapidly than a sailboat. The boat gets a fresh coat about every three or four years with a touch up once a year. When it’s hauled, it has no growth on the bottom. The sides, which are out of the water at cruising speeds, have a little growth which is easily removed with a pressure washer or a green scrub pad.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by waterman46

Racing folks will usually haul and paint every year but for others, normally a bottom job lasts 3 years with scheduled cleaning in the marina slip depending on local conditions and your use of the boat.

One huge difference this year is that we may not want to have folks in the water, in marina's, cleaning boat bottoms. All water contact may be totally prohibited in many places.

We have hauled and repainted every year for 34 years! Until this year. We decided to try skipping a year. Our Mexican Comex bottom paint usually holds up quite well for six months then requires bottom cleaning periodically. This year we just increased the frequency of bottom cleaning after 12 months and it is doing fine at 18 months, so the experiment proves that it is possible and we save the expensive haul out here in Puerto Vallarta.

I will dive on the boat (at anchor) in a few minutes from now to scrape the few remaining barnacles which I missed yesterday. DIY bottom cleaning is easy and good exercise, with snorkel, mask, fins and a scraper and brush. Takes about 4 hours for two people, once every two months at this point. (the water is 75 deg, so we don't eve need wet suits).

[model 10]

I spend the whole sailing season cleaning the bottom of the boat, and the dinghy bottom (cuz we usually don't hoist it.) By the end, the bottom of the boat looks pretty good. I only dive the bottom on nice sunny days and when the water isn't full of jellyfish etc. I find a plastic drywall knife a pretty cool tool. It takes the form of the hull after a while.
I start out the season being down for just a few seconds, by the end of the season I'm doing OK. Good stuff. Those long skinny fish that often hang out under there must think I'm crazy

[ejjawhite]

I too have decided against a complete bottom paint job this year. I’ve always used a hard multi-season bottom paint. Last year I changed over to a hard ablative. I sanded the bottom last week and washed it down. I’m going to paint only the keel and waterline with what I have leftover from last year. I’m joining the opinion of a friend who said he wants to wear off so,e paint, Why not? Every year I’ve spent lots of $$$$ on High grade bottom paint. I’ve got about 8 layers to wear down.. I also have the availability of a really cute, ambitious bottom cleaner. I’d rather give her a couple of jobs than spending it on paint.

[ejjawhite]

I too have decided against a complete bottom paint job this year. I’ve always used a hard multi-season bottom paint. Last year I changed over to a hard ablative. I sanded the bottom last week and washed it down. I’m going to paint only the keel and waterline with what I have leftover from last year. I’m joining the opinion of a friend who said he wants to wear off so,e paint, Why not? Every year I’ve spent lots of $$$$ on High grade bottom paint. I’ve got about 8 layers to wear down.. I also have the availability of a really cute, ambitious bottom cleaner. I’d rather give her a couple of jobs than spending it on paint.