Gelcoat or paint

[hellosailor]

R&B-
I would guess that there was some type of damage to that one side of that one hull, perhaps only dock scrapings but SOMETHING that the PO felt was either unsightly or in need or other repair.

It would be normal and conventional to just repair and repaint one side of one hull, since that's going to cost less than 1/4 of repainting the whole boat and, if there was any insurance involved, they may have only gone for the side that needed work. If you've got a big budget and high standards, by all means, paint it all now. ("If".<G>)

And I don't see any reason to repaint the whole boat if all that needs work is one side of one hull. It should be possible to get a damn near invisible color/shine match, if the others still have gloss, or if you can compound/polish them back into the same shape.

More important would be that you now have to sand off all the "wrong" coating to get down to a clean base, and then explore your options. From what I've heard and seen, once you paint you must ALWAYS REPAINT. It may take ten years, but any "coating" will wear eventually and need recoating. Of course, if you don't protect gel coat it will chalk and decay too.

The coating makers dance around with words and say the coatings don't need any waxing, or shouldn't be waxed, or should only be "protected" with their special products (which are wax or polish in simple English) but I'd look at just finding out what's wrong with that one side, and just fixing that one side. See what you've got under the alligators, what the base material is, and then get some quotes on new coatings. I think you'll find new gelcoat so much more expensive that it isn't worth doing, the "coatings" are pretty good these days.

Ten years from now...then you can repaint the whole thing.<G>

[dkall]

R&B,

I'm in a similar situation. Never really used paint before 2 years ago. Know that I'm going to have to budget for painting every 12 years or so (Awlgrip) and if we would have gelled maybe 20. I didn't want to be a slave to waxing and didn't want to be fighting the stains.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by skipperaris

What is the brand with big mining equiment on it CAT MAN DO ?
If you do not want to publicly advertise it could you please email me?

They were a small Australian company that for the life of me I can't remember the name of, and they got sucked up by a larger company anyway.

This is why I now use Ameron .Welcome To Ameron Coatings

dkall, not saying that this happens in all examples, but we have seen bright colours, red's in particular fade very fast in Awlgrip paints in Australia's harsh sun.

One cat in particular had the red stripping almost dissapear entirely over a 5 year period.

Dave

[hellosailor]

Dave, red and yellow paints, dyes, inks, are all problems in intense sunlight. The UV breaks them down faster than other colors, regardless of who makes them. The problem is bad enough that bright red sports cars (think Porsche, Ferrari) which have been kept in the sun, even here in the temperate US, will never match factory fresh paint after 2-3 years. Any repairs have to be done as a custom paint match because of the fading.

Same problem exists in sailcloth, the different dyes embrittle nylon (for chutes) and break down at different rates, again red breaks down fastest.

[cat man do]

I do agree hellosailor, but this had'nt just faded, it had gone a patchy pale pink mostly white.

I have to admit, that I've never painted in red's after seeing this , but we do have a few bright yellow cat's and tri's close to where I am and I know they were painted in cheaper urethanes, but not sure which brand.

The colours on these are fine after 15 year's, and a quick buff on one of the cat's a few years back brought her back fresh as a daisy.

Dave

[skipperaris]

Originally Posted by cat man do

They were a small Australian company that for the life of me I can't remember the name of, and they got sucked up by a larger company anyway.

Thanks for coming back anyway CAT MAN DO
I'll check the Ameron site although where paint is concerned a web site cannot tell you a lot, I don't think...

On the other hand there are some strange animals in the jungle. I remember one year a Scandinavian painting his boat with a paint that had to be applied with a special rubber spatula!

Never seen such a finish before or since then

The poor guy was at it for ages and was almost cryig with frustration and the unkind remarks from almost everyone at the boat yard. I am proud to say I resisted the urge to comment.

[R&B]

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. Since this is a cat and we are talking about right now just the outer port hull, I might have changed gears a little due to a $6000 to $8000 quote...The gelcoat guy brought up a good point..that since the entire side needs to be done and it is a cat...the match is not overly critical since you really wont see the two sides together..he recomended a good quality paint untill I could do the entire boat....Which he claims I could do myself..he also feels that the existing 3 sides with gelgoat can be brought back to life....

[skipperaris]

You are being wise, I would say, R&B and yes it is true that gelcoat can be brought back to life. I have done this twice to my Erato. A lot of work but well worth it. Also I took rather a lot off and also there were extensive scratches which is why I am doing a gelcoat job this year.

Interesting that costs are pretty much international. My two sides (42ft) cost € 4000