bottom paint

[RichCarter]

My lovely wife and I put a fresh coat of bottom paint on our 424 this spring. A year ago, I stripped the bottom down to bare gelcoat. We used a local soda-blast company. After they were done, filled any blisters exposed by the process. I sanded the entire bottom with a random-orbital sander to make sure the surface was clean. This also insured that the epoxy had a rough surface to stick to. I applied five coats of Pettit barrier coat. I’m pleased to say that after one season there are no blisters to report.

Getting the finish down to bare glass last year was a good start since I no longer have to deal with sections that have peeled. After many years and many different types of bottom paint, the finish had flaked in different areas. I no longer add a new coat of paint each season but there were old layers of non-ablative paint that where not adhering well. Once that was removed and the barrier coat applied, I added the best ablative paint I could find. I selected Pettit Hydro-coat. The first coat was green and the two subsequent coats were red. Each coat required a gallon of paint. The paint worked as well as any bottom coat we’ve used. Since its water-based, the paint is easier to apply. I highly recommend it. As usual, we applied it with a roller. The finish was fairly smooth but had a typical orange-peel texture left by the roller.

We added a fresh coat of bottom paint this season but will probably not add an additional coat until the green bottom coat shows through. This will hopefully avoid flaking in the future. Some die-hard racers wet-sand their bottoms after applying a coat of bottom paint. I race the boat but I’m not serious about it. If I were a serious racing enthusiast I’d own a different boat. Still, I’d like to get a better quality finish on the bottom but I don’t want to go through the extreme process of wet-sanding.

This year we tipped the paint during application. My wife did the roller work. I followed with a large painters brush that had been first wet with paint and kept moist with water and a bit of paint occasionally. Tipping smooths out the rough surface left by the roller. The paint dries to the touch in minutes so a bit of water is needed on the brush and occasional extra paint to pull the texture out of the finish when tipping. The finish came out very smooth. I’m expecting the boat to be a bit faster in light air this season.

Rich
BlackSheep #47

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