Time between bottom painting

[Letterkenny]

I’m in San Diego and just got my first repaint of my antifoul. Boats in the water year round and has a diver come every 3-4 weeks depending on the season. I think my interval of just about 3 years was a bit too long as I noticed a nice speed increase after getting it done but was basing this off my diver reports. What are the intervals others are doing for similar conditioned boats? If I can keep this speed up, it will want me to do this more frequently but balancing cost here as well. Paint used was Trinidad HD.

[Kettlewell]

Ha! Here in New England we have to haul out every year after the six-month season. So, we recoat every spring. Still get lots of growth by the end of the season, but no professional bottom scraping. When I've traveled south for the winter, I put on more layers of ablative and can go about one year before she needs a bottom job. There are usually other things that need to be done out of the water every year or so anyway.

[MicHughV]

Too many variables here to form any kind consensus.
For instance, where you are located.
Is your boat kept in still water or tidal water.
How often you use the boat.
How often do you get the hull cleaned.
What type of bottom paint do you use.
How many coats ?
Etc, etc, etc,....

In Florida I can expect to get two years between haulouts, more or less, but do have a diver come scrub the boat periodically, change zincs, clean the prop, and so on.

[Jackdaw]

Originally Posted by Letterkenny

I’m in San Diego and just got my first repaint of my antifoul. Boats in the water year round and has a diver come every 3-4 weeks depending on the season. I think my interval of just about 3 years was a bit too long as I noticed a nice speed increase after getting it done but was basing this off my diver reports. What are the intervals others are doing for similar conditioned boats? If I can keep this speed up, it will want me to do this more frequently but balancing cost here as well. Paint used was Trinidad HD.

Also in San Diego, cleaning bottom every 3 weeks in summer and 6 weeks when it's colder. Same as you I've been doing 3 years based on diver recommendations which I think is simply based on remaining coat thickness, but I also have been noticing performance improvement after recoat. I've been thinking to shorten the next cycle but haven't tried yet.

[Letterkenny]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

Too many variables here to form any kind consensus.
For instance, where you are located.
Is your boat kept in still water or tidal water.
How often you use the boat.
How often do you get the hull cleaned.
What type of bottom paint do you use.
How many coats ?
Etc, etc, etc,....

In Florida I can expect to get two years between haulouts, more or less, but do have a diver come scrub the boat periodically, change zincs, clean the prop, and so on.

Which is why I provided my personal feedback. Essentially trying to data mine some information here.

Originally Posted by Jackdaw

Also in San Diego, cleaning bottom every 3 weeks in summer and 6 weeks when it's colder. Same as you I've been doing 3 years based on diver recommendations which I think is simply based on remaining coat thickness, but I also have been noticing performance improvement after recoat. I've been thinking to shorten the next cycle but haven't tried yet.

I think I might chart out some performance details and degradation over time now. Hard to tell on the short run back from the yard but she felt a solid knot faster and faster at lower RPM. Just more than I’d expect as she is cleaned every 3 weeks summer and 5 weeks winter.

[thomm225]

I do mine every 4 years whether it needs it or not.

I don't use a diver in between repainting.

Boat is in the water all the time.

Just painted this past Winter and will try on my next short 5 day cruise to clean the bottom a bit myself.

Luckily, my boat is only 27' with a 4' keel. (8 ' beam)