Cleaning The Hull

[mark rocco mont]

I pulled my boat out today and now she sits on my trailer. After the boat was secure when down to the car wash and washed the bottom . Most of the slime and some of the barnacles came off..... over all not to bad
So what should i use to get the bottom clean enough to paint ? Saturday I'm taking every thing out of the cabin clean with bleach and water and prep the in side to be painted....These two items are the major projects. The other projects are minor....need to replace a pulley ...vent fan in the cabin and a bilge pump. and a few other things
Let me thank every one now and looking forward to your opinions Thank you all........Mark

[NewMoon]

A thorough power-washing should remove all slime and barnacles - leaving only the barnacle glue rings. Don't use too aggressive a tip on the power washer.

If you're going to paint anyway, you can remove the rings fairly easily with a putty knife, as long as they're on a reasonably flat surface. There may be a better way, but that's what I did.

When I bottom-painted my 8 year old hull, I power-washed, used a putty knife here and there, and then hand scrubbed w/ boat soap. After that, I used a solvent to be sure there was no wax remaining on the fiberglass.

I masked the waterline with blue painters tape. Then a sandless primer (2-3 coats), and then Pettit Hydrocoat water-based bottom paint (2-3 coats). Carefully followed directions as to timing between coats.

Great results.

[mark rocco mont]

Thank you blue moon...before reading your reply i was already sold on the Pettit water base paint. What was the name of the primer you used ? I know I'm going to power wash the bottom one more time and then scrub and scrape. I want it to come out nice. I will be trailer/sailor so this paint job will last a bit longer than keeping her in the water all the time. Thank you again Mark

[minaret]

If you did that here you would be arrested and fined most heavily. All pressure washer runoff and any sanding dust must be contained and disposed of as toxic waste. It's why there are boatyards. I wouldn't let the car wash find out who fouled their system with barnacles, either.

[NewMoon]

Hi Mark,

I used Interlux 202 wax solvent, and Pettit 6999 sandless primer. That was on a hull that had never been painted before.

[mark rocco mont]

Thank you Blue Moon...will be painting this in the coming weeks mark