Bottom Painting in Baja

[sww914]

We did the bottom of my mother-in-law's boat in La Cruz this year, about a month after the new management took over. The old manager was a notorious prick.
A 43 footer was just over $700.00 to haul out and $1.00/foot/day for storage. Not cheap. Opequimar's prices in Marina Vallarta were slightly higher, but not much.
Pettit Trinidad SR paint was about $500.00 a gallon at Zaragosa's. Not cheap.
Comex paint was about $200.00 a gallon and allegedly only good for a year.
We used Comex epoxy primer, about $200.00 for a ~2 gallon kit, it was an excellent product at a decent price.
Defender usually has some bottom paint discounted pretty low.
The yard is professionally run now and Pedro, who is kind and professional and fairly priced is contracting repairs in the yard or you can do your own work. I saw Pedro's guys (and girl) do some bottom jobs while we were there and they do a good job on the parts that you can't see in addition to the parts that you can. For DIY, California would probably be cheaper. If you bring your own paint and pay the labor to Pedro, La Cruz may be cheaper than California. I'm sure that Guaymas and San Carlos will be cheaper than either.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

You can't mix the tin additive with copper-based paint. They are incompatible.

No offense, but that seems fairly unlikely. I think you'd have to drink the stuff out of the can to get poisoned by it. It simply doesn't release copper off the hull in the kind of quantity to do that. I have certainly dived plenty of fresh bottoms and have never had a problem or heard (until now) of anybody running into trouble doing it.

Maybe the guys who've used the TBT additive were using "eco" non-copper paints. I really don't know the details but I've seen the mix agents go in and they get good results.

Regarding the poisoning, it was news to me and perhaps he got copper poisoning somewhere else. But it was copper poisoning, it started a couple of days after he cleaned his bottom (no idea why he needed to clean a fresh paint job) and he was screwed up for months. I think it might have been the type of paint, I'm not sure. The symptoms are like arsenic poisoning.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by sww914

We did the bottom of my mother-in-law's boat in La Cruz this year, about a month after the new management took over. The old manager was a notorious prick.
A 43 footer was just over $700.00 to haul out and $1.00/foot/day for storage. Not cheap. Opequimar's prices in Marina Vallarta were slightly higher, but not much.
Pettit Trinidad SR paint was about $500.00 a gallon at Zaragosa's. Not cheap.
Comex paint was about $200.00 a gallon and allegedly only good for a year.
We used Comex epoxy primer, about $200.00 for a ~2 gallon kit, it was an excellent product at a decent price.
Defender usually has some bottom paint discounted pretty low.
The yard is professionally run now and Pedro, who is kind and professional and fairly priced is contracting repairs in the yard or you can do your own work. I saw Pedro's guys (and girl) do some bottom jobs while we were there and they do a good job on the parts that you can't see in addition to the parts that you can. For DIY, California would probably be cheaper. If you bring your own paint and pay the labor to Pedro, La Cruz may be cheaper than California. I'm sure that Guaymas and San Carlos will be cheaper than either.

Good to know they switched. That Pedro guy was a total tool. We're on 15 months of our bottom paint and it's still working although the barnacles are tenacious little bastards. I'm hoping we can make it through Mexico without hauling out.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Maybe the guys who've used the TBT additive were using "eco" non-copper paints. I really don't know the details but I've seen the mix agents go in and they get good results.

All I know is the Sea Hawk website says not to mix the two.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Maybe the guys who've used the TBT additive were using "eco" non-copper paints.

Do not mix with non-tin based paints.

http://www.seahawkpaints.com/Librari...nBtr.sflb.ashx

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Sorry to ruin your justifcation for poisoning the ocean, but the U.S. Navy doesn't use tin-based paints.

I did some sleuthing and you're right.
Since 2001, they are using a paint with siloxane.

http://www.marinebottompaints.com/military_craft.html

It's good (I used fluorinated polysiloxane as an overcoat over hard paint and got 15% speed advantage), but it's very EXPENSIVE and doesn't last long. A few months is about it.

Of course, the gummint doesn't care what anything costs.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

I did some sleuthing and you're right.

Don't ever doubt me.

While it is true that the Navy are exempt from any anti fouling paint regulations, contrary to popular belief, they are on the forefront of metal-free and non-toxic anti fouling coating research, development and use.